Sleepy Saracens Scrape Victory

Saturday afternoon saw the Saracens take on the in-form Norwich Medics at Mackenders. With the sun shining and a gentle breeze blowing it looked to be a perfect afternoon for a game of rugby. Diss received the kick off and straight away gained territory, to find themselves camped in the Medics 22. The home side looked promising, but a couple of miss-timed moves and a very well trained Medics defence saw the Saracens fail to capitalise on the territory which they held for the first 15 minutes. This was first sign of the Diss team being a little complacent following the previous week’s victory away at Broadland. Then following a turn over from a ruck the Medics attacked hard, but well-timed covering tackles by Mike Skeet and Matt Trede prevented them running a try in.

The Saracens composure started to slip, and an infringement at the ruck saw medics awarded a penalty in front of the posts, which they duly kicked to take a three point lead. This had got the Medics fired up, and not long afterwards they ran in their first try after a series of interchanges, illustrating how well drilled they are. This was comfortably converted to give the away team a 10 point lead. This was a serious wake-up call for the Saracens, and after some sage words of advice from the well-experienced Richie Horne the Saracens responded well. From the re-start the Saracens attacked hard, to find themselves once again back in the medics 22. After a series of attacking moves using both the forwards and the backs, Jacob Page dived through the medics defence to put Diss on the score board. Abraham Goymour converted this taking the home side into the break trailing 10-7.

Following the interval the Medics came out looking dominant and put the Saracens on the back foot from the restart. A period of scrappy up-front collisions ensued and eventually the home side’s back line managed to make a break, following a series of rucks by the blue pack. After a series of interchanges with Will Hemmant, Abraham Goymour crossed the line out-wide, to leave himself the tricky job of converting, which he succeded with. Diss now leading 14-10. The motivated medics weren’t happy with this and once again fought hard. Once again their preparation was evident as they ran through a series of phases, which eventually found a dog-leg in the Diss defence to run their second try home. The conversion was narrowly missed, giving them just a one point lead.

The Saracens finally woke up and worked tirelessly for the next ten minutes, both in defence and attack, and found themselves once again in the Medics 22, with Will Edwards kicking wisely to gain the home side valuable territory. Following an infringement at the line-out, the home side were awarded a penalty 5 metres out, and opted for the scrum. Following a mammoth eight man drive by the Diss pack, who had looked dominant in the set piece all game, the pack powered over the line for Number 8 Luke Bailey to score their third try. Abraham once again converted comfortably to give the boys in blue a 21-15 lead. Diss then defended tirelessly for the final 10 minutes as the young Medics side tried their hardest to break the gain-line. The final whistle came after a series of pick and goes by the medics, which were stopped instantly time and time again by Diss forwards and backs alike, leaving the Saracens contented with their second half efforts.