Diss Rugby Club U13’s Yorkshire Tour diary

Diss have been able to field two teams all season with 28 players in the Diss Squad making it the largest U13’s team in Norfolk. On it’s recent tour to York on the 7/9/9th of April, it was incredible to be able to take 23 of those players away to play Pocklington RFC and York RFC and reflects the health and strength of the club.

This tour schedule has a history for Diss, with a famous tour in 1993 taking place by a group from the Diss club known as the ‘Oinkers” due to their association with the pig industry.
The U13’s tour was thus billed as ‘Oinkers - The New Breed’ in homage to the 1993 tour. Local pig farmer, Richard Wright was on the original tour in 1993 and joined this one with his son William.

Pocklington U13’s are a strong team having won all but two games all season so Diss had their work cut out to make an impact. It may have had something to do with the late night but Diss started slowly and allowed Pocklington to score four early Try’s leaving the Diss boys with an uphill struggle to get back in the game. The Diss forwards started to make their presence known with some sterling work in the breakdown and winning the ball for Miles Clark (Scrum Half) to get his fast hands to work and move the ball out to Ben Faulkner. Ben Faulkner is a strong runner and with Joe Jermy running of Ben’s shoulder, Diss finally looked to be getting into the game and up past the Pocklington 22. Ben passed to Joe and with a great tackle by Pocklington the Diss forwards moved into position and controlled the ruck. Miles saw a gap, picking up out of the ruck and with a cheeky nip through two Pocklington's players, he dived over for a smart Diss try.

With 10 changes to the Diss side and they started much brighter with Ashton Darwell-Taylor sprinting through from a fine kick over the top off the Pocklington players from the scrum. A fortunate bounce and a run sprinkled with fluid jinks and feints saw Ashton score an unstoppable try for Diss. Ashton scored a second Try not long after and was unlucky not to get another. With Diss needing one try to get level the game looked there for the taking. However, Diss then saw a period when its defensive line was a sorry state and Pocklington found it too easy to get through and score four Try’s, effectively putting the game out of reach. Heads went down but the forwards saw a way back into the game and started a period of domination, getting within five yards. Bryce Cochrane at Scrum Half then passed quickly to Ben Waters to go through and score.Pocklington had the last word despite a fine tackle by Finlay Martin and the game finished 45 - 15 to Pocklington.

The second match was against York RFC U13’s. York started at a rapid pace and carried on where Pocklington left off with some fine rips in the tackle that saw Diss cough the ball up too easily. The York players had their tails up and after ten minutes had scored two Try’s, the second of which was an impressive speed of ball through the hands and a line speed that belied their years. It would have been more but for some great tackles made by Owen Davies and twins Ollie and Josh Davies.

Ashton Darwell-Taylor received the ball out wide and with an impressive fleet of foot skilfully avoided and powered his way through to score a fine try and it gave belief to the Diss boys who were faced with another very strong Yorkshire side - they breed them tough up there. York replied by scoring an all-too-easy Try that saw their number 15, a thorn in Diss’s side all day, run through without a tackle made. But the Diss heads didn't drop. Far from it. This was real tit-for-tat Rugby with the whole Diss team putting in a shift to stop York in their tracks. Ben Waters, Harry Hitch, and Dylan Smith made a succession of hard tackles and Alex Baker was making his mark with his strong powerful runs that are his trademark.

Just before half time Kenny Sayers gathered the ball at the York 22 and powered through several players before handing off to Ben Waters who was in close support to crash through and score a great Try, leaving the score at half time at York 15 Diss 10. It was a huge team effort to keep the game close and no doubt the strong tackling took its toll on the York team. With ten replacements on at half time, Diss started as if their lives depended on it and inspired by their teammates in the first half. Finlay Martin picked the ball up on his own 22 from the drop kick from York and with serious determination in his face, made a diagonal run powering through at least five tackles. It seemed that no matter what York threw at him it was shrugged off or danced through and he scored a Try that would set the scene for the second half.

The next Diss Try came from an exceptional move involving the forwards and backs. From a number of picks and goes by the forwards that took them into the York half, Miles popped the ball to Stanley Spurdens who, with great speed, and no small amount of side steps and dummies got to within a metre of the Try line before being tackled. Just as he was about to hit the ground he popped the ball out of the back of his hand to a grateful Joe Jermy who dived over to score a wonderful Try.

Now it was time for Diss’s tails to rise and with their noses in front the parents looked on in anticipation of what would be a perfect end to the season, on a perfect spring day in York.
From the York kick-off, Diss moved the ball through several sets of hands and finally through to Joe Jermy who proceeded to swerve and dance his way through the initial four tackles and with a hand-off or two, made his way through to score a great individual Try.

York elected to receive the Kick-off and were determined to not let the game go and if it hadn't have been for Drew Harris putting his body on the line and tackling York’s big number 15, he’d have surely scored. The Diss forwards, marshalled by the superb Josh Hayhoe, and including Issac Powell, Adam Balding, Henry Robinson and William Wright played an exceptional game and won the ruck. Henry Robinson has always been the U13’s best player in the ruck and today was no exception with him winning the ball for Miles Clark who picked up and feinted left before running through the gap he’d just created and passing to Stanley Spurdens who made an aggressive run to score another great Diss Try. York elected to receive from the kick-off and the Diss forwards pressured and turned over the ball. What followed was a great forward Try with constant pick and go. The ball ended up in the hands of Issac Powell who powered over to score.

Again our forwards worked hard to create another Try that would have made all forwards coaches proud. But it was the link play between forwards and backs that most pleased the Diss Coaches. The backs passing was a joy to watch with quick ball and great positioning and awareness throughout. The next Try saw Finlay Martin make a strong run and offload to Joe Jermy to run through and get a well-deserved hat-trick. The next Try saw the forwards win another scrum and Miles popped the ball to Stan who moved it through to Finlay to burst through and score.
And it was left to Issac Powell to give the forwards the last word in the game after ripping the ball from a York player and running 30 metres to score the final Try of the game.
It was considered to be the best performance by Diss that any of the parents and coaches had witnessed and represented the end of a strong season for the U13’s. I’d go so far to say it was a perfect day.

With thanks to Diss U13's sponsors: Complete Flooring, Claret Engineering, For Farmers, Cranswick, Quality Equipment, Hammonds and The Park Hotel.