Southwold -V- Diss

On the third consecutive glorious Sunday in terms of weather on the common, skipper James Rowland and his U10 team welcomed Diss to the Wold on what was to be a real rugby feast. Eagerly anticipated by young Wold, Diss arrived in good time and took time out to warm up.

Southwold had taken an early start to warm up fully, work on some communication and team drills & welcome James Saxton, back from his travels into the fray. Some basics were shown to James, as last time he played, it was still tag. He learnt very quickly under the coaches direction & slotted in with his peers effortlessly.

Skipper Rowland's welcomed Diss on the half way and generously lost the toss to give Diss the start. Diss began brightly with ball in hand but with the lightening line speed of Will Dyson, were soon forced into errors & Wold turned over the ball. From the first play with ball in hand, Isobel Ross scampered from the back of gain line a few metres before being felled by a Diss player. Dyson rucked over and Ellis Philips played scrum half to release the scampering Grainger Muir. Muirs play, characterised by his mazy and jinking runs took Wold a long way up field before he was tackled. The resulting clear our by previous skipper Warren Terry was fierce and this released the maul brothers, Dyson and Philips who barged Diss out of the way for around twenty metres before Dyson fell over the line to score. This sent young Wold into overdrive and they could already sense a win. From the kick off, line speed again proved to be Diss's undoing & turn over prevailed, with the duo of Archie Camp and James Rowland combining to release Muir again. Metres were made, the maul formed and this time it was Philips, driven over by Dyson who scored. Diss had no answer to the maul and often had to commit 5 or 6 players to stop the maul. A similar play again by Wold saw the flyer Louis Davey released on the wing to fly along and make several metres before just being put out of touch by Diss. Half time arrived and several changes made. Everyone plays 50% of every game in this side.

On came the returning James Saxton, along with Southwold hard men Charlie Dean and Arthur Carman. The return of Dean and Carman to the fray dramatically increased the physicality young Wold possess. This power, coupled with Dyson and Philips ability in broken play, defenestrated the Diss defence within 20 seconds of the restart, with the returning Dean powering through from the turn over ruck to score a magnificent try. Southwold repeated this move again, with a powerful charge of line speed by Muir and Dyson combining to hassle Diss into a mistake, which lead to turn over and a second try for hard man Dean, welcome back Charlie. Diss somehow regrouped and scored a try, helped by a momentary lack of concentration from Southwold. These moments must be cut out if Wold wish to be ruthless in the game.

This began a period of renewed effort by Southwold. Muir generously invited Saxton to have a run at Diss from the kick off. Saxton went for it and beat a couple of players before reinforcements arrived to ruck over again. From the 10m line, the ball went through all of the team's hands and onto Philips, who mauled and barged his was over for another try.

On the final play, the ball went to ground deep in Wold's half & Dyson and Dean rucked over, to release the thrusting ram, Arthur Carman, who doggedly ran off and took most of Diss with him. The run went on for approx. 20metres before Carman was felled, the ruck secured and through three sets of hands the ball went to Muir, who scored a delightful try to secure the game.

Southwold U10's would like to thank Diss RFC for a great day and would also say thanks to Linda Cayley for photographing the game!

For his returning play and honest efforts, Charlie Dean was made vice captain for the game against Woodbridge on December 09th.

ARN THE 'WOLD