Thetford 2s 26 : 31 Diss 3s - 13th December 2014

It was a cold frosty day and Diss 3rds found themselves at their nearby rivals Thetford for a game to warm the players hearts and bodies.

Captain Benny Goodman passed a fitness test before kick-off and Will Foote decided with all his years of experience that the pitch was playable. Diss began brightly and Adam Williamson was the puppeteer playmaker at fly-half so much that Diss scored first through good play out wide on the wing by Jordan Little. The Diss scrum was slightly ineffective to the point that Ethan Page had to play second row and throw in at the lineout. With Thetford fielding a bigger pack they began to dominate certain forward play and scored two tries of their own in quick succession. Diss came back but Benny Goodman and Barnaby Chenery spurned try scoring opportunities with poor passes that went to ground.

At half time the score was 12 – 5. Will Foote gave a rousing half time talk and Goodman made the change of Will Baldwin in the second half but Diss conceded again after the poor tackling by the forwards and Thetford scored out wide. Paul Coomber was brought on the wing and with Steffan Coombs at scrum-half distributing good ball to magical Adam Williamson, Diss threw the ball out wide and Coomber raced through the gap made by Joe Sides and offloaded to Dougal Poulsen to score. Diss again were lapse and Thetford scored through a good move by their full back.

Now was the time for Diss to up their game and Diss managed to score another try through a lovely wrangy move where Adam Williamson and Benny Goodman sucked the centre defence in and Dougal Poulsen cut a scissor line to score close to the posts for his second. This left the score with eight minutes to go Thetford 26 Diss 17.

More forward pressure by Diss and the bulk of Will Appleton brought Diss close to Thetfords try line and With Peter Key and Freddie Cornish putting pressure on the Thetford front row and Ben Walker in the second row making space, Adam Williamson broke through to score close to the posts. Chenery scored the conversion. Two minutes to go and the score was Thetford 26 Diss 24. Diss sensed the game was for the taking and with more good distribution ball by captain Goodman who set up Dougal Poulsen to make a break at centre to pass for Jordan Harris to race in from out wide to score with less than a minute to go. Straight after the kick off the referee blew the whistle for full time.