Diss 26 - Ipswich 27

Ipswich won a yoyo match with style when man-of-the-match Tertius Terblanche bamboozled the home defence to score with a minute of the match remaining.

In a game which saw the lead change hands three times, Ipswich walked off deserved winners, having missed four kicks at goal and surviving ten minutes of the match with only 13 on the pitch after flanker Cristoffel Blom and player-coach Jeff Searle had been sinbinned for deliberate fouls.

Diss drew first blood when a penalty attempt freakishly bounced off the crossbar into the arms of the chasing winger who scored as the visitors stared dumbfounded. The conversion left Ipswich 7-0 adrift but the visitors took command only to earn just one from three penalty attempts by Chris Hadwen in the next quarter of an hour to close to 7-3.

On the half hour burly Bryn Kerr set his backline alive to see Hadwen cut inside his opposite to score near the posts, with his conversion taking Ipswich into a 10-7 lead.

Ipswich’s forwards stepped up next with Blom flying out of a rolling maul to score, the conversion giving Ipswich a comfortable 19-7 lead.

The home side were unimpressed by the score and from the restart they collected their own kick, controlled the ball in the forwards and sent the ball wide to score in the corner.

The second half cut Ipswich down to size as they conceded two penalty tries and lost players to the sinbin. First Blom then Searle was sinbinned for infringements in the maul and scrum respectively as Diss drove for the line, the 14 points a bucket of ice water in the face of the visitors who had a battle on their hands without two of their most influential forwards.

Flanker Gert Rossouw worked out of his skin to stabilise the pack and alongside captain Alex Briggenshaw Ipswich’s forwards held the blue-and-whites at bay.

With the full team back on again it took until the 34th minute for flyhalf Jan Van Tonder to score on his debut, as Drew Locke fed Terblanche who supplied his fellow South African with a pop pass just before the line. Locke missed the conversion.The visiting supporters’ hearts were in their mouths as the clock ticked away but Terblanche sublimely skippedaround the opposition winger and fullback to earn a valuable victory which has taken Ipswich up to sixth in theleague with a game in hand.

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