On Saturday 19th October, Diss 1st XV mens team travelled to 3rd place Ipswich RFC for what would be a nail-biting encounter.

Ipswich came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders with a converted try and a penalty to follow within the first 10 minutes. Diss re-gathered some structure and unfortunately missed a few close opportunities within the next passages of play. The pressure proved too much for Ipswich, as Tiger Shaw fed Luke Miller from a line-out on the Ipswich 22, who beat two players and used his pace to get over the line.
Not long after, with wind in the Diss sail, George West slipped through a wall scrambling of Ipswich defenders. With only the full back left to beat, he offloaded to Pete Bray, who was running an exceptional support line and followed with a 40m sprint to the try line. With the half time whistle approaching, Ipswich were knocking on the door, Diss turned the ball over and with the ever accurate boot of Frank Lavergne, managed to pin Ipswich on their try line. A good chase and a steal, allowed Tom Webster to dot down under the Ipswich posts. Aaron Frith with 3 from 3 conversions in the first half, giving Diss the lead of 21-15 at the break.

The second half began again with an Ipswich try, which pulled them into the lead. Another Lavergne cannon danced with the wind, and evaded the Ipswich back three. He collected his own kick and with some slick handling from Harley Skidmore, Aaron Frith was released on the right hand side of the pitch to score another try. The game drew into its final minutes on a knife edge. Ipswich scored a brace of tries to take the score to 34-29 in favour of the home team. With two minutes to go, and Diss camped on their own 22, with seemingly no way out… precision handling and pace was the only option. West to Lavergne, Lavergne to Jones, Jones to Frith, Frith to Webster. With space and a cheering Diss away crowd on the wing, Tom Webster found himself in his natural habitat. A length of the field try, which was again converted by Aaron Frith, gave Diss a spectacular 36-34 point win. Well done to the boys in blue and white!

Submitted by Will Tomson