City of Derry lost their home record to a Dungannon team that came out of the blocks running scoring 12 points in the first quarter which was a lead they never surrendered.
Dungannon entered the game averaging 56 points per game and they looked early on like they would go close to that score after counter attacking from deep off the first play. Only scrambling defence and excellent work at the breakdown from debutant Chris McDonald forced a turnover and Derry relieved pressure. Then Derry swung onto attack and was looking threatening but a turnover was quickly spread to O’Shea and he bullocked his way into the Derry 22. What appeared to be McDonalds second turnover of the night was judged to be not through the gate and Dungannon signalled their intent and kicked to the corner. A patient series of pick and goes was rewarded with a try to hooker Tommy Smith.
Derry again put together a number of good phases and created space for winger Simon Logue but unfortunately the referee didn’t play out the advantage and awarded a penalty just to right of the posts. Unfortunately Adam Parke’s strike hit the uprights and Derry again came away with nothing.
Dungannon showed no mercy when another promising Derry attack resulted in a forced turnover and the ball was spread wide and fullback O’Shea broke the cover to score handy to the uprights. Lawton converted to make it 12-0 after 20 minutes. Derry finally got some reward for their endeavours with a well struck penalty from Adam Parke which was quickly cancelled out by Lawton after an accidental offside.
Derry efforts to cross the chalk were hampered by Dungannon persistently slowing the ball and eventually the referee lost patience and sin-binned second row Mark Farquhar. Derry chose a 5m scrum but a huge effort from the 7 man scrum of Dungannon turned over the ball and Derry yet again failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Lawton on 32 minutes converted another great 40m penalty after Derry was judged to not keeping their feet at the breakdown. With the score at 18-3 Derry played out the remainder of the half on attack but failed to break down the excellent Dungannon defence despite opening them up on a number of occasions.
The second half Derry continued with the momentum they took into the break and peppered the line for 5 minutes before player of the day Richard Baird broke 3 tackles to score next to the uprights. Derry again swung back onto attack and were rewarded with a penalty after Dungannon were judged offside at the break down. Richard McCarter converted and with 30 minutes to go Derry looked to have all the momentum. However from the deep kick off Derry failed to clear after a charge down. Again a penalty for accidental offside was awarded and Lawton converted from a handy position to give Dungannon an 8 point gap 21-13.
Derry preceded to camp in the visitors half for the remainder of the game and despite having their opponents stretched the tenacious last ditch defence from Dungannon held resolute. For Derry it was a lesson for this young squad that with more patience in the opponents 22 they would have been able convert the pressure to points.
Coach Bevan Lynch was disappointed but philosophical about the 21-13 loss. “I was very pleased with a lot of our play tonight. I thought after a poor start we managed to create some good continuity but despite opening them up at times we failed to clear past the ball and this allowed them to scramble their very good defence. If we can create more quick ball we can open up any team”.
Lynch was full of praise from young inside backs Adam Parke and Chris Barber who both took the ball strongly to the line and contained the dangerous midfield which included ex-Ulster and Exeter player Stuart McCloskey. Lynch added “it was great to also see debutant openside Chris McDonald who was one of our age group club players looking comfortable at this level. He managed 3 crucial turnovers and slowed a lot of their ball down.”
Derry will now look to earn some much needed league points against Instonians this week in Belfast while the 2nd XV look to advance to the next round with a tough fixture at home to Larne.
