Diss U12 come 3rd.

It was really good for the players to compete in the Sudbury Festival for their last matches of mini rugby. The morning started in a subdued manner as the parents and players learnt of the passing of (coach) Mark’s father; the thoughts of all of them are with Mark at this difficult time. Richard ably stepped into the breach as chief coach but it was a day when everyone appreciated what a terrific job is done by all of the main coaches.

The tournament started with a match against the Colchester Green team. After the setback of an early try, a speculative pass by Harry (the sort coaches discourage in the strongest manner possible!) was caught by Dom on the wing and he evaded a couple of tackles for a try in the corner (what do the coaches know!!). It was a fine end-to-end game and midway through the second half a quick strike at the scrum and perfectly timed pass by Aaron on the blindside saw Jack dash over in the corner. Not for the first time in recent matches, a hard earned lead was rather quickly given up as careless defending allowed Colchester to equalise. Both teams pressed for a winner but a draw was probably a fair result (2-2). Looking back, this was probably the best Diss played all afternoon and it was the only match an accomplished Colchester team failed to win.

After 30 seconds of their second match against the hosts, Sudbury, the players had to leave the pitch to allow the air ambulance to land. After a lengthy delay they restarted on a different pitch, only for another delay as the helicopter took off. Reverting to the original pitch to complete the match, a scrappy encounter was the almost inevitable result. Only a piece of individual brilliance by Dom separated the teams as he ran clear, kicked past the last defender and regained possession to score the only try of the match (1-0).

After a very short break, the final match of the group saw the team face Haverhill for the first time. Two matches ‘on the bounce’ saw a degree of tiredness enter their game and poor tackling allowed one of the Haverhill backs to run from the halfway line to score. It was a game littered with mistakes but midway through the second half Harry won the ball at the lineout and burst through to deservedly equalise (1-1).

Second in their group meant a match for 3rd/4th place. As Colchester were unable to provide full teams for the 5th/6th place play off, the main final and the match with Diss, they generously conceded the match but still put together a strong team of all the talents to give the boys a final taste of mini rugby. With nothing to play for, a rather meek display in the first half saw Diss go 2-0 down. A rallying cry from the coach saw an improved second period; when Harry caught the ball at a lineout and was rumbled over the line by the rest of the forwards there were thoughts of a comeback. However, the final play of the day saw a beautifully judged Colchester kick touched down in the corner (1-3).

Grateful thanks to Sudbury for hosting such a well organised tournament (and for inviting us!). Congratulations to Colchester for deservedly winning the tournament; they played with great flair but, equally impressive, turned up with three very able teams.

Player of the Day was a difficult choice with lots of solid performances but not many outstanding ones. However, the stand-in coaches were agreed that Jedd Carter had probably put in his finest performance for the Club and he thoroughly deserves the honour today.

Having played their last match of mini rugby it’s perhaps a time to briefly reminisce. Enormous thanks are due to all of the coaches for their input and for all of those individuals who give freely of their time for the team and Club. First and foremost amongst all those people has been Mark. He has transformed those sweet (that’s you Aaron, Dom, Jack, Nathan et al!) little U8 tag rugby players into a formidable team that can take on the best the county (and beyond) can throw at us. This has been achieved with an all-inclusive policy that has meant ‘everyone plays’ and has resulted in Diss having a large squad, rather than just a small team. The players can be enormously proud of their efforts and I believe that this year has shown as much improvement as any; particularly impressive has been the way the newer players have quickly become unrecognisable as ‘new players.’ Really well done and I hope you continue to enjoy playing at U13 level.

Roger Williamson