Relieved to earn bonus point away at Diss

A tough day at the Office for Walden as they travelled to Diss who no doubt will be one of the strongest sides in the League this year.
It was a bright sunny afternoon and Diss started well making their way into the Walden half and putting pressure on the visitors, but they could not quite penetrate enough to score. After 10 mins Walden counter attacked with pace and some slick handling between backs and forwards that saw captain James Gosden go over in the corner to put Walden ahead for the only time in the game.
It was clear that Walden were up against a well drilled and bigger pack and Diss used this advantage twice during the rest of the half as Walden collapsed a scrum as it trundled towards the line on 20 mins and the referee awarded a penalty try. Then from the last play of the half they gained a 5mtre scrum and this time scored a push over try to leave the half time score at 12 -5 to Diss.
Diss were first to score after 5 mins of the second half stretching their lead to 17- 5 and then the game broke up as first Walden suffered 2 fairly serious injuries to the front row and the scrums had to go uncontested which giving Walden an obvious advantage, but not something they would have wished for considering the nature of the injuries. This advantage was soon negated when a player was given a Red Card for careless use of the boot.
Down to 14 Walden really suffered over the next 10 mins as Diss cut loose and ran in 3 converted tries to put the game seemingly beyond Walden's grasp at 38 – 5.
Heads could have gone down but the 14 dug deep and found a try out of nothing as the backs made a break and Mark Kimberley ran into space to get within 5 metres of the try line as he was tackled he managed to offload to winger Will Brown who dived over. 38 -12.
With renewed confidence Walden started to find their feet and and 2 more quick tries as the forwards followed up openings made by the backs for first flanker Eddie Brown to go over and then front row Harry Stocking to score the bonus point try as Walden came back in the game making the score board look a lot different at 38 – 26.
The comeback was dented as Diss scored another well worked try but Walden replied as Eddie Brown went over for his second and there was still only 2 scores in it at 45 – 31.
But finally Walden’s depleted line up finally ran out of steam and Diss scored the final try in the corner with time up to leave the final score at 52 -31.
A breathless second half, the Walden players can be proud of their never say die attitude gaining what seemed an almost impossible 4 try Bonus point after going down to 14 trailing by 33 points with less than a quarter of the game to play.
They will need to regroup for another tough away trip to Campion in Romford but if they focus on one more herculean effort in training they know from this second half performance they can and will score tries to give any team problems.
Thankfully they will then get a much needed break having received bye in the National Cup the following week