Nick Greenhall looks ahead to Diss Rugby Club's home clash with Ipswich YM in Counties 1 Eastern Counties

Diss Rugby Club head coach Nick Greenhall is hoping his side can put on a performance for the Mackenders crowd when they host bottom side Ipswich YM tomorrow (2pm).

Counties 1 Eastern Counties’ basement side Ipswich visit Norfolk this weekend in good spirits after picking up their first win of the campaign last Saturday, beating Thurston 19-10 to move to within three points of climbing off the bottom of the table.

Greenhall took a patched up Diss side, which suffered with unavailability across the squad, to West Norfolk, where they lost 29-17 to drop down to 10th.

With Diss set to face the division’s current top two in their final two fixtures of 2022 after this weekend, Greenhall sees no reason why his charges cannot end the year on a high as long as he sees an improvement in team selection.

“We had a very changed team at West Norfolk,” the Diss boss said. “I think we had 10 changes to the team from the previous match.

“We had four 18-year-olds in there and it was a very young team.

“They had all played before for the first team but not all four at the same time. They did a great job and I was pleased with how they stepped up.

“We’re back at home this weekend and the crowds at home seem to be getting bigger and bigger.

“We hope to put on a performance in front of our home fans and then we go into two games against teams at the top before Christmas.

“We know where we’re at and we’re building at the moment, but I do think at this level all of the teams can beat each other. It’s down to the availability of players on the day.

“On Saturday we had a mix of work and family commitments and injuries, but we’re able to beat anybody if we have good availability.”

Captain Frazer Baron and Luke Miller scored tries for Diss as they opened up a 17-12 half-time lead at Gatehouse Lane last weekend, before the hosts responded with 17 points without reply in the second half to come out on top.

Diss are expected to be boosted by the returns of Jon Trede, Luke Bailey, Joe Brock and Tawanda Kandemwa for tomorrow’s clash with Ipswich.