Dungannon vs Harlequins
Stevenson Park, Dungannon.
11th September 2010
Saturday’s Senior Cup match against Belfast Harlequins saw the Dungannon faithful leaving Stevenson Park carrying the memory of a magnificent initial twenty-three minutes with four great tries, and the fact that Dungannon are in the hat for the First Trust Ulster Senior Cup quarter final draw .
The actual game was played under the Autumn downpours, making play that much more challenging but great spectator rugby. Dungannon started the game with some wonderful attacking rugby, and within minutes scored the first try when flanker Ali Birch showed strength and determination and drove over the line scoring the first try. Chris Cochrane recently back from injury did some fancy footwork, from a short pass from Conor Gaston, scored the second try
Dungannon where passing well and were playing as a tight unit . Birch secured the ball and charged up the field, Harlequins looked indecisive – and Dungannon keeping the ball in play -despite worthy opposition from the Harlequins, some deft passing to the backs with a skilful offload from Conor Gaston and Cochrane took it over for Dungannon
A magnificent counter attack from Conor Gaston saw him leave several defenders in his wake as he ran from well inside his own half before touching down to the right of the posts after twenty minutes. 20 – 0. Dungannon with Birch, McKenzie, and Rainey to the fore took on the mighty Quins pack and Chris Cochrane almost completed his hat trick but was forced into touch five metres short.
Glen Telford was in rampant form and almost escaped the attentions of the Quins defenders on two occasions. However Quins literally weathered the storm and pressed Dungannon.
A lack of concentration saw Gannon lose possession and only some great defence from Mark Riddell kept the visitor’s score line blank.
A great run from broken play by Michael Kirkwood in the second half deserved more but Michael showed his talent in defence when stopping a dangerous Quins move.
You could not fault the effort of Dungannon they kept up the attack on Harlequins with a good display of discipline and ball handling skills. Harlequins had chances, yet never fully galvanised themselves and played well enough to make Dungannon work hard in the second half – forcing Dungannon to play the majority of the rugby in the Harlequins half.
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Harlequins did get a well worked attacking opportunity when the Harlequins centre cleared the Dungannon line after the harlequins retained possession through multiple phases which resulted in him diving over to take the score to 20-05 at fifty minutes Great tackles by Adam Duhig saw off a further Harlequin attack, a penalty was given and Timothy Smith took the final score of the match and a respectable 25-5.
