Diss 13, Hertford 32Though Diss gained nothing from this fixture, the other results went their way, with Tring and Haywards Heath losing and Sutton and Epsom beating Portsmouth.

Diss 13, Hertford 32

Though Diss gained nothing from this fixture, the other results went their way, with Tring and Haywards Heath losing and Sutton and Epsom beating Portsmouth.

Hertford arrived at Mackenders determined to overturn the last meeting between the two sides, when Diss inflicted their first defeat of the season.

After that Hertford sacked their coaching team and started a new regime at the club and they duly gained revenge, having the match won in the first 20 minutes as they ran in four tries.

Diss were forced to make changes, with Steve Hipwell moving to No 8 following injury to Andy Horne, Rhuan Jones returning for Seb Goodge, Matt Gardner replacing Steve Hipwell in the centre, and Giles West coming in on the wing for the injured Carl Smith.

On a perfect day for rugby, Diss attacked from the kick-off, but the ball was quickly stolen and the speedy and well-drilled Hertford backs cut through and around their opponents to score an unconverted try within three minutes.

Four minutes later it was the same player and the same result, with the ball being offloaded in the tackle opening up the Diss side.

This time the full-back converted the try.

By the 20th minute Hertford had scored two more tries, and Diss had a mountain to climb, not helped when Ali Butler was replaced, due to a back injury, by his brother Stuart.

Despite the scoreline Diss had most of the territory, and with the pack working hard Hertford began to be pushed back and chances were created.

West just knocked on when he had an overlap, there was an accidental offside as Diss were camped on the Hertford line and the referee adjudged the ball to be held up, after a good drive from the line-out by the forwards.

Eventually the referee had enough and penalised the Hertford pack, letting Chris Beaird score a penalty from in front of the posts.

Diss started the second half again putting Hertford on the back foot and Beaird scored another penalty.

The Hertford No 7 was then yellow carded and the Diss pack drove the ball over for Tim Groom to appear at the bottom of the pack, having scored the try, which Beaird converted.

Hertford came back strongly towards the end and added a penalty and an uncoverted try in the corner to complete the scoring.