South Woodham Ferrers RFC v Diss RFC

South Woodham Ferrers made the trip to Diss this weekend on the back of two home wins and looking to gain their first win on the road of the season. Sadly his was not to be; the lads going down 31 points to 15 to a Diss team who’s attack was incisive and clinical. The home side made the most of their attacking chances where the visitors coughed up the ball or gave away silly penalties on their visits to the opposition twenty-two.

Diss opened the scoring with a penalty early in the first half as the two sides tested each other’s defence. Woodhams attack was starting to look promising when a Diss managed to break through the line to score the first of their four tries. Woodham hit back with a series of well worked attacks and after two penalties found themselves on the Diss 5 metre line. Diss were able to keep them out but with a scrum under the posts Woodham looked like getting their first score. Sadly, it was not to be; a knock on in the scrum enabled the defenders to clear their line.

The home side scored their second before Woodham hit back with a well worked try from the back of the scrum. Joey Dukelow pounced on a ball chipped through the Diss defence to carry the ball over the line.

The half ended with Diss on top 17 points to 5.

Some poor defending in the opening minutes of the second period allowed Diss to draw ahead with a third try. The visitors then enjoyed a period of ascendancy during which they scored a second try from a dominant scrum, Jake Knowles touching down. Alex Baker slotted the conversion and followed that with a penalty as Woodham fought to get back on terms.

The last quarter of the game saw both sides testing each of others defence but on each occasion the ball was either turned over or stalled by a penalty. The game looked like fizzling out into a stalemate until Woodhams Stuart Whatling was sin binned for a high tackle on a falling Diss attacker. The home side took full advantage and scored their bonus point try in the closing minutes of the game.

Both sides will have been disappointed with their performance, handling mistakes or moments of ill-discipline saw promising attacking moves halted. It seemed that neither side really hit their straps but the visitors will be most aggrieved that they just couldn’t hit the level of intensity that had seen them victorious in the last two games.