Friday night Rugby comes to Henham!

Great win at home under lights keeps Walden's hopes alive.

Friday night Rugby comes to Henham!
With the newly installed Flood Lights given the go ahead by the RFU only a week before it was good that Diss agreed to make the journey down on Friday Evening for the first ever game under lights at Walden's Henham Ground. A fantastic turn out proved the decision correct and both teams put on a good show in front of probably one of the biggest crowds of the season.
Walden started well but perhaps the adrenaline was a bit high with a few handling errors stopping some of the flow and they could not make any impact on the Diss defence.
It was the visitors who were the first to score when a turn over ball in the centre of the pitch resulted in the left winger finding some space, he broke one tackle and then used his pace to round the full back and score near the posts to take a 7 point lead after 15 mins.
However Walden started to make in roads into the Diss half and might well have scored only for the final pass to go astray. But they were on the score board 10 mins later when several phases by the forwards the ball was worked into the Diss half they sucked in some of the wide players. Sensing this the ball was passed down the line for centre Adam Miles to break the line and with only the full back to beat made the perfect pass to right winger Ben Stapleton to go over unopposed, fly half Tom Price kicked the extra 2 to level the scores.
Diss scored their second try after a series of drives and they finally worked the ball over the line to once again go 7 points up on the 32nd minute.
But Walden managed to level the scores on the stroke of half time when Tom Price put up a high ball around the half way line, Diss failed to gather it cleanly and Ben Stapleton was first to control the bouncing ball and sped towards the posts, he was tackled 5mtres out but his momentum got him close enough to the line and he reached out to score.
The second half was a more tense affair as both sides cut down on the errors but it was Walden who had the upper hand for most of the 40 mins.
10 mins into the half they thought they had worked an opening on the left hand side 8mtres out when they had a clear overlap on the blind side, in desperation the last man in the Diss defensive line put his hand out to stop the pass and deliberately knocked it on. Unsurprisingly the Referee had no choice but to send him to the bin for 10 mins. Leaving left winger Oliver Webber frustrated as it looked a simple run in should the ball have got through to him to him. He could so easily have been awarded a Penalty Try.
With 15 mins left to play Walden's dominance was rewarded when a series of penalties was given away by the visitors and the ball worked into the corner for a line out 10 metres out. A drive was halted but the ball was fed out to full back Mark Kimberley who found space to go over the line, the conversion took Walden 7 points clear at 21 – 14.
Despite being only one score ahead for the next 15 mins Walden never looked like conceding the victory and quite possibly could have scored again for a bonus point, but they were content to keep it close and ensure the victory.
This result keeps Walden's hopes alive of escaping relegation leaving them 13 points adrift with 4 games left in the season.
We are always on the look out for new players to play either in the first team in London N1 or the Saxons (2nd team) in Eastern Counties 1West, if you are interested in joining our friendly club please contact either info@swrfc.co.uk or graham.marshall2@ntlworld.com