U13's - Diss 50 vs Crusaders 15

A really good display by the U13’s team led to another victory and marked an important milestone in their progression. School half-term means the squad is always smaller therefore the question posed was how would the 'core team' perform. The emphatic answer came with one of the best team performances of the season, with the word ’team’ very much to the fore.

15 Diss boys were there including the welcome return of Santos Ledesma (injury) and Kit Brodie (illness). With 11 Crusaders the Diss team lent 2 of their players on a rolling basis to Crusaders to make a match.

From the whistle the Diss boys played with confidence and passion. In the first few minutes Aaron Lockitch made a solo break from a scrum that caught Crusaders napping and scored the opening try. This was quickly followed by a second score when a mid-field burst by Kit Brodie took the ball close to the try line. The resultant ruck allowed Toby Groves to pass the ball wide to Liam Brighton who used his strength to push past 3 defenders and dive over the try line.

Despite the early scores giving Diss a 'buffer' the match was not one sided. Crusaders had some strong players and fought hard for every ball combined with probing runs, sometimes to the Diss try line. On one such Crusader move a killer tackle from Kit Brodie halted a Crusader breakaway, he then jumped up and won the resulting ruck enabling Charlie North to pick the ball up and run round the defence to score. A superb try made by Kit.

The next score was initiated with a good passing move from a Diss scrum, Aaron Lockitch passing the ball out to fly-half Santos Ledesma who moved forward and slipped the ball to to Alex Allott on the wing. Alex backed himself to run past the chasing Crusader defence, showing a fine turn of pace to score. This was followed by two more quick tries. First a ruck that the Diss boys controlled allowed Charlie North to pick the ball up and deliver a fine solo effort tracking across the pitch with the ball to get past outstretched hands. Then Aaron Lockitch again fed Alex Allott with a long pass to taking out a number of Crusader defenders allowing Alex to run for the line and score his second try

The passage of play was back and forth with great tackles made across the team. The quality of Diss tackling is improving but one moment that stands out was the 3 'back to back' tackles made by Will Worley as full back. The first was as 'last man’ facing a Crusader breakaway, he then got up and tackled the next arriving Crusader player, he then got up for a third time and tackled the next Crusader - 'a one man team' who snuffed out the attack and enabled his teammates to re-group.

The next try was a well deserved one for Kit Brodie who after his recent illness was full of beans for the entire match. Toby Groves won a ruck ball and spun a pass out to Kit who finding space used his pace to run almost half the pitch to score a great try. He was also involved in the next which started from a penalty. Kit moved forward and offloaded to Charlie North who burst through the defending line to make a long run for the line and score.

The next try was a fine solo try for Toby Dickinson, seeing an opportunity to run wide he rounded the defence to cut back and score under the posts. This left the last score of the day to come from a good deep run by Alex Allott, taking the defence with him. As he moved infield he slipped a pass to Aaron who dived across the line to score in the corner - his 'bookend' try having scored both the first and last of the day.

Diss did not have all their own way. Crusaders scored 3 tries and each was well deserved reflecting a dogged and determined effort. The boys played 13 a side on a full pitch, were rightfully tired at the end, but were lifted by the spirt of the match which was first class - as was the support for both sides. Thanks to the Crusaders team and parents who travelled to Diss.

The reflections of coaches Johnny and Mark were extremely positive. The boys played more like a team and rucked really well. They supported each other and the results in terms of tries was a function of this. There was lots of hard work by teammates who did not get on the score sheet - tackling, assisting, grinding - and this must never be forgotten. Man of the match was Will Worley for his relentless tackling as full back, indeed the number of tries scored by Crusaders could have been double were it not for Will’s ‘last man’ tackling across the match.

Next week sees the next Eastern Counties tournament held at Diss. We hope to have a full complement of players now that half-term is over and are optimistic for more evidence of the upward trajectory of the team at this next fixture.

Training is on Tuesday - hopefully with a good attendance - and the match photos are on the Diss website (U13's section)...click here to see them https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/dissrugby/photos/diss-u13s-vs-crusaders-at-home-798996.html

Peter Allott
Feb-2018