Diss III 22, Wymondham II 16Diss Threes managed to field a team with only three changes from the win over Wisbech IIs last week, Dave Horne came into the centres and Will Baldwin started at open side with Danny Hilling in the front row at loose head, with the youthful Dave Hay in charge.

Diss III 22, Wymondham II 16

Diss Threes managed to field a team with only three changes from the win over Wisbech IIs last week, Dave Horne came into the centres and Will Baldwin started at open side with Danny Hilling in the front row at loose head, with the youthful Dave Hay in charge.

Top of the table Wymondham had only lost two games in the Norfolk Merit League One before today and the Blues knew it would be a tough encounter.

The visitors scored first with an unconverted try. Which was followed by some indiscipline going backwards in their own 22 resulting in three penalty scores from the Diss hooker and place kicker Ben Askew.

James Chapman had to leave the field with a bad shoulder injury to be replaced by Rookie forward Dan Swanson.

The game was in the balance at half time at 9-5 but Diss started the second half the stronger making good ground and Askew slotting another three points, unfortunately three minutes later Wymondham did the same.

The game then centred around the halfway line and big tackles from Dave Horne and Benny Goodman, along with running efforts from Nas Girgin and Alex Crayton in the backs, consolidated possession for the blues.

Man of the match Will Baldwin was on top form chasing and harrying the opposition scrum half and back row at every opportunity and another solid, and at times cheeky, performance from scrum-half Shaun Williamson really disrupted the Wymondham game plan.

Neil Weedon at fly-half controlled the back line well and his experience and communication gave the younger players great confidence. Under-17 Gareth Watts, at eight, secured the ball well in the line-out and protected Williamson at the scrum.

For all their efforts Diss had a funny 10 minutes when whatever they did well was mirrored by bad luck and they were hit by a try out wide with an impressive conversion for Wymondham bringing the score to 15-16 with 12 minutes to go.

Diss Strode up for the re-start and gained ground from which they stayed in the visitors half. The Blues were quick up in defence and a kick from the Wymondham centre was charged down by the large stature of Horne and after tacking one bounce prop Mark Dungar gathered the ball to break through one tackle and charge 25 metres under the posts for the winning try converted by Askew.

A fantastic result from a talented squad really surprised the strong travelling Wymondham team, with some exceptional performances by the younger members of the team against a well drilled visiting second team.

Team: D Hilling, B Askew, M Dungar, D Hay (capt), P Key, J Chapman, W Baldwin, G Watts (17), S Williamson (17), N Weedon, N Girgin, D Horne, H Goodman, A Crayton (17), F Newman. Replacements: D Swanson, K Peachey, W Appleton.