RUGBY: On Saturday, Diss welcome Tring to Mackenders in what could turn out to be a pivotal match even this early in the season.

The efforts of the squad in the last two matches against Barnes and Bracknell have shown that the desire and ability to break this losing sequence are there, but now this needs to be changed into points.

With the next home game being against North Walsham, Diss need to get back a winning mentality.

Tring are two places above Diss in the league, having won four games this season, but if another home performance is produced as against Barnes, Diss should be able to take something out of the game with virtually an unchanged side.

The Saracens are also playing Tring at Mackenders (2.15pm).

The third XV are away at the University of East Anglia (2.15pm).

Bracknell 22, Diss 15

DISS travelled down to Bracknell in better spirits after their performance against league leaders Barnes the previous week, when they outplayed their rivals for much of the game.

Immediately from the kick-off Diss knocked on and from the resulting scrum the ball went across the field and back stretching the Diss defence and allowed Bracknell to score.

From then on Diss dominated the first half, and Zac Seward broke through the defence, offloaded to Warren Wilby who raced clear to score under the posts, Chris Beaird converting.

Pressure again told when Beaird scored with a penalty, and again in the 27th, when a series of drives by the pack led to a four-man overlap, but captain Matt Richards made one more drive to score, not converted.

The second half was all pressure by the home side, where the defence of the whole team was immense and kept out wave after wave of attacks.

Andy Horne was sent to the bench for 10 minutes for deliberately dropping the maul and in that time Bracknell scored two converted tries.

Diss almost scored in the last minutes but the defensive effort they had made left them just short of the power needed to get over the try line.

This was again a better team effort, especially in defence. It is frustrating that their efforts are not yet producing the results they deserve.