Diss suffered defeat against top-of-the-table Westcliff for a fourth successive league defeat.

As expected, Westcliff wasted no time in moving the ball wide at every opportunity and immediately put Diss under intense pressure.

From the kick-off Andy Horne showed exactly what was needed by running directly at the Westcliff forwards, causing havoc with an aggressive and determined approach.

The Diss forwards were in the ascendancy in the early forward exchanges and troubled the league leaders at the breakdown and in the scrummage.

The pattern of play was going to be determined by the ability of the Diss forwards to keep control of the tight possession rather than letting the Westcliff backs run with freedom and open space.

Westcliff were however able to break clear on two occasions in the first half and take a 10-0 lead after 25 minutes.

Unfortunately for Diss, James Wyatt was unsuccessful with a difficult penalty attempt and a clear scoring opportunity was missed through careless handling errors.

The Diss team were however really pushing Westcliff at every breakdown and following the game plan of making life as difficult as possible for the form side in the league.

Sadly Jamie Burroughs had to leave the field just before half-time with a serious knee injury that will certainly keep him out of action for a number of weeks.

The nature of the Diss defensive effort meant they were able to reach half-time very much in touch.

Diss were immediately put under increased pressure in the second half and allowed Westcliff to score two unanswered tries.

The Westcliff back division had real pace and attacked from depth but Warren Wilby, Giles West, Peter Chartier, Jack Peacock and Steve Maqueen were all defending gallantly.

The Diss forwards were still producing quality possession for their backs. However many of the attacks were originating from a long way out and due to careless errors were often snuffed out by Westcliff.

Further Westcliff tries gave the visitors an unassailable lead. Diss however responded with determination. Following excellent work from the forwards, Chartier produced a pin-point cross kick for tight-head prop Tim Groom to sprint 25 meters to the line to score.

As the game moved to its conclusion Diss suffered two more worrying injuries, to Michael Fuller and John Burgin, leaving an already injury-riddled squad in further trouble for the difficult matches coming up.

Diss did however finish the game on a high with the forwards annihilating the Westfcliff pack from a driving lineout and Charlie Crotty the successful try scorer.