No tags yet.
Championship leaders Diss were entertaining Cantabs in this league encounter and with a crowd of 250 cheering the home side on a tough day was expected. Especially as Cantabs were without a recognised scrum half, and Diss had only been defeated once this season.
The home side kicked off and James Hayward returned the kick with interest, but straight into the arms of their bulky full-back. He ran the ball back through flailing tackles, up to our 22, passed inside and Diss scored under the posts; 7 - 0.
From the restart we won possession and Pete Collins and James Hayward exchanged passes down the right wing to such effect that James scored in the corner. A lovely piece of rugby and a shock to the home side. The conversion from the touchline was short but after two minutes the score was 7 - 5. Cantabs then had their best spell of the match pinning Diss back in their 22. We had 5m scrums, 5m lineouts but the killer pass was never quite there and after ten minutes their No 8 broke clear, ran the length of the pitch and scored under the posts to make it 14 - 5.
From that point on there really was only one team in it. Our scrum was dominant throughout, as expected, but so much of the rest of our game was shown up by a very good side. Yes, we had our moments but, poor passing and spilled ball, rather ruined quite a deal of possession. Time and again Diss ran through our tackles as our attacks broke down. Diss just had too many runners; numbers 8, 10, 11, 12 and 15 continually punching holes in our defence, with always a man on the shoulder to take the pass if needed.
In all Diss went on to score a further eight tries, and converted a good proportion, courtesy of their fly-half. Not a day for a detailed report from your correspondent, as frankly you would not want to read it! Final score 64 - 5.
Let's hope we can recover from this mauling and bounce back against Ipswich at Sedley Taylor Road next week, Our fitness, physicality and tackling were shown up by a far better team, and it would surprise me if Diss lost again this season.
Cantabs dropped down to fourth after this defeat, for the first time in three months.