A bright sunny afternoon very little wind, confident from two good away wins the first home game with a good home crowd what could possibly go wrong. Civil Service knew this was going to be a hard game against fancied Diss from Norfolk specialising in agricultural forward play against the nimble players of the Civil Service. Starting well Civil Service showed that with the ball in hand they were capable of running Diss around the field and after 8 minutes No 9 Hadyn Cummings sliced through the Diss defence the conversion was missed which would prove critical later 5-0. Diss composed themselves and started to get the forwards rumbling around the field gaining a penalty missed and after 17 minutes of toil rolled the ball over the line to score by a prop 5-5 conversion missed. After further play by Civil Service, were awarded a penalty, for Diss infringing, converted by 10 Liam Geraghty 8-5 after 32 mins. Following the Diss pattern of play Civil Service were starting to be drawn into the kind of game that was more in Diss's favour lots of strength work and little open play. Diss did manage to spin the ball out and with so many players in a heap had the space to get through the Civil Service defence for the winger to score and 15 to convert 8-12 after 41mins just before halftime.
The second half started with Civil Service firing on all cylinders and the pressure resulting in a penalty which was missed, followed by some good open play ending with 11 Wihan Grobler sweeping over for a try converted by Liam Geraghty after 55 mins 15-12. All looked set for the Civil Service to cut loose however the Diss style of rugby keeping the ball in the forwards and trudging it around the field started to suck in Civil Service almost irresistibly. Diss gained territory and with the referee not making any decisions about using the ball were able to control the ball for long periods ending with a try after 63 mins 15-17. Continuing in the same vein the lighter Civil Service pack tried everything to break up the forceful Diss rucks and mauls with little success resulting in another try at 74 mins 15-22. The Diss place kicking had been worse than Civil Service but in the suddenly woke up to slot home a penalty 15-25 at 76 mins . Civil Service were making some inroads and were managing to gain some ball and in a flowing move winger Brendan Robinson scored out wide with a good finish 78mins 20-25. The pressure was on Civil Service were pushing hard as the clock was running down, Diss attacked rolling the ball into the 22 and somehow Civil Service were adjudged to have infringed giving a penalty away and again the Diss 15 who had not been having a good afternoon managed a good conversion 20 28 on 80mins. Civil Service were pushing hard and making progress and despite the fact there should have been minutes of injury to go, the referee blew the final whistle to the relief of Diss and disappointment of Civil Service.
Paul Tiller