Beccles 2s 0 : 68 Diss 3s - 11th February 2017

This was a canter, a record romp if not quite the biggest margin as the home fixture in October. The only concerns for Captain Benny Goodman was that was it enough of a fixture before the crucial Southwold game next week. Otherwise all went according to plan, not least the return of Todd Wishart from injury having not played for two seasons who grabbed three tries. If you were a neutral then this approach was hard to watch, not just from an aesthetic point of view, but from the desire to see a competitive game. The pictures got prettier as Diss raced away in the second half, frolicking around in all the space, but first came sustained grunt. The bonus point was sorted by the 35th minute when the outstanding Steve Macqueen got over for his second try when he made a darting run from inside his own twenty two to score. Before that Captain Benny Goodman had already grabbed a couple of tries and Ben Brooks had dropped one. Diss did the spirit of rugby no harm and lent Beccles four players, Will Foote, Baz Teare, Owen Atkinson and Fred Cornish to ensure the game went on with fifteen aside and as the snow made its way over Norfolk the shortened game came to an end with the thoughts leading to England v Wales that early evening. Highlight of the afternoon was Paul Cayley being pushed backwards by James Winterbottom and Jake Meers getting his first try for the club running in from the halfway line. Ben Brooks made up for his earlier mishap and added two tries himself one with a particular good finish stepping inside two players to score. Nick Yager kept Will Foote quiet and Naz Girgin did a solid job at number 9. Chris Howard at his new found position at number eight made life difficult all afternoon for Beccles and eventually got on the score sheet after many attempts and even Tim Groom scored. Thoughts move on to next week where Southwold will bring a much better test to Belrope lane with a win almost assuring a top two finish in the league.