Diss Rugby Club second row Chris Kent on getting back to winning ways in Counties 1 Eastern Counties

Chris Kent is confident Diss Rugby Club can still compete for a top-three finish in Counties 1 Eastern Counties this season.

Diss halted a four-match losing run with a 26-5 victory over Southwold at Mackenders last Saturday.

And as the league heads into a slip weekend, Nick Greenhall’s charges sit in ninth place with a game in hand on the teams above them.

While Holt currently occupy third spot and hold a 16-point lead over their rivals, Kent believes Diss can still aim for the top three.

“It’s been a strange old season,” the Diss second row said. “At the start of the season I was looking at the league and we had got potential for promotion.

“I think this year there’s been one team, Saffron Walden, who are very well structured and were a good team.

“A lot of the other games it was maybe our mistakes that contributed to our losses.

“Against Southwold we reduced the mistakes and look at the number of penalties we’ve committed this week compared to previous weeks.

“Previously we’ve been over 20 penalties a game and this week it was under 10. That was a contributing factor and we also kept 15 men on the pitch.

“It was great to celebrate the win and it’s a step in the right direction.

“We need to take it each game as it comes but this is definitely a season we should be competing as one of the top three teams come the end of the season.

“I have a very positive attitude towards sport and we never back down.

“There’s never a team that I look at and think ‘oh, we can’t beat them’.

“A top-three finish is definitely what we’ll be aiming for. Hopefully we can move on from previous results and if we get two wins from our next two games then we’ll be in a good position after Christmas.”

Tawanda Kandemwa scored a hat-trick of tries, and Jake Girdler also dotted over the line, as Diss got back to winning ways and picked up a full five points at the weekend.

A postponed trip to bottom side Ipswich YM, which had been rescheduled for tomorrow, will now take place later on in the season.

Diss will welcome Ipswich to Mackenders for their next home game on December 3, but before then will resume their campaign with a visit to West Norfolk a week tomorrow (November 26).

For Kent, who turns 49 in January, he will spend the free weekend away from rugby playing National League-level basketball, before battling amongst a competitive squad for a place in the Diss XV next week.

“I will play as long as I get a first team shirt,” he said. “Age is just a number.

“I still play a number of sports and if I get to 50 (still playing), I get to 50 and if I get to 55, I get to 55.

“I’m more than happy to give the shirt to someone else who deserves it, but if I’m still getting picked I’ll still be playing.

“I’ve played under Nick for most of my career at North Walsham, and he coached the Eastern Counties for a number of years, where I played for 12 seasons.

“Wherever Nick goes I end up with him. I went from Sudbury to Diss, and had seven or eight years at North Walsham, and at Bury for 11 years, so I’ve probably played 30 years of competitive first team rugby and I still love it.

“At Diss it’s very competitive in our pack. Every week we have to train twice a week to be considered for selection.

“There’s four or five players going for two or three shirts. You don’t know until the Thursday if you’ve made the squad or if you’ve made the starting line-up.

“You need that healthy competition for places as it gets you better quality rugby for Diss.”