Southwold 2s 0 : 29 Diss 3s - 29th October 2016

The blue and whites of Diss 3rd team travelled to coastal rivals Southwold to take on their second team and came away with a well fought victory owed much to the awe inspiring performance of back row players Jack Owen and John Alexander. Benny Goodman’s side didn’t have it all their own way as Southwold made a strong start to the game but a penalty from out wide by Naz Girgin, who has a kick percentage in the high seventies, was slotted over to get the game going. This gave Diss the confidence to play a more expansive game and following a stolen lineout by Owen Atkinson captain Goodman made his first of many line breaks and passed out wide for the ball to eventually land to John Alexander to score from inside the Southwold 22. The game continued at a frantic pace and this is where the defensive quality of Jack Owen came into play. Two almost certain tries were averted with last ditch tackles near the Diss try line and this gave Diss the opportunity to clear their lines and get on the attack. Diss continued on the attack and with Owen Atkinson at his very best disrupting the lineout Steve Macqueen found some space to side step and score close to the posts. Diss soon after went down to 14 men when some fancy footwork by Will Foote who thought he was on Strictly come Dancing went too close to a players arm and spent 10 minutes on the side lines. This didn't matter to Diss who had the upper hand and gained a pushover try from close range with a forward missing. At half time the game was sown up and the only thing missing was the bonus point victory, After various attacks where Warren Wilby featured greatly and young colts Charlie Hay and Daniel Baxter featured also a try was scored by the ever reliable Jack Owen on top of his double figure tackle count to give Diss the bonus point victory. The game finished with centre James Hayhoe playing hooker showing his versatility making up for his late appearance and the win took Benny Goodman’s thirds to the top of the league.