Donaghadee travelled to Dromore last Saturday in the knowledge that preventing Dromore from a bonus point win on the day would offer Donaghadee the reward of a second consecutive top four finish and qualification for the All Ireland Junior Cup. CLICK HERE for pictures
Donaghadee very nearly produced the perfect start in what was a high tempo opening five minutes from the Dee men. The opportunity came from a useful Paul McKenzie nudge deep into the Dromore 22 and as the opposing fullback tried to clear Chris McGivern pounced and charged the clearance, in turn creating an opportunity to ground the ball over the try line. Although the referee signalled for the try a late touch-line flag brought play back for a Dromore line-out.
Only two minutes and a number of phases later there was no doubt about Donaghadee’s next effort as the referee awarded a penalty try after a number of infringements at the scrum from the defending Dromore. The Dee dominance in these early scrums was to prove a feature of the game as Ali Barnes, Phil Eadie and pack continue to show their quality in this area.
Dromore responded to the early setback with a sustained period of pressure and McKenzie suffered the fate of a sin-binning on the 23rd minute, perhaps a tad unfortunate to be the last of a number of Donaghadee offenders at the breakdown. Dromore immediately capitalised on the numerical advantage and powered their way over the line for their first points of the game.
Donaghadee lost influential captain Ali Lockhart midway through the first half with a nasty knock to his mouth – a disappointing end to an otherwise exemplary season for the young scrum-half.
After the try the momentum immediately swung back in Donaghadee’s favour and the powerful David Thompson, who recovered well after an earlier knock to his calf, fed Billy Allen from the base of the scrum. Allen took the ball at speed and found himself in space and finished with class just to the right hand side of the uprights to give Donaghadee a 12-5 lead.
On the stroke of half-time the dynamic Dromore scrum half Steenson appeared to use his boot illegally at the breakdown and with the referee having a clear view of the incident he decided the Dromore man’s actions warranted a red card.
Half Time – Dromore 5 Donaghadee 12
Allen scored his second of the day early in the second period taking a quick penalty deep in the Dromore half. Allen showed a great turn of pace and excellent strength to finish his solo effort after great work by the Dee pack to establish territorial advantage. Barker converted to give Dee a 19-5 lead.
With Donaghadee very much in the ‘driving seat’ and Dromore down to fourteen men one could of easily predicted a Dromore capitulation however with strong home crowd support the Dromore side enjoyed enough possession in the second period to produce a reasonably entertaining game.
The focus and commitment of every Donaghadee player, including two strong impact performances from Chris Wood and Phil Collins was enough to keep control of the game. Kalave Auali’itia was in no mood to sign off his two years in a red and green shirt with anything less than a victory with another excellent performance dominating line-out set pieces with Richard Martindale.
The desire of the Dee players was perhaps epitomised best by a piece of play on the 63rd minute from Chris Hamilton. Hamilton put in a text book tackle in the middle of the park, leapt to his feet and stole the ball from the ruck that formed as a result of his tackle.
The Donaghadee backline suffered a few re-shuffles during the game due to a number of injuries and tactical switches. It was however this youthful back-line who conjured up Donaghadee’s fourth and final try of the day. McGivern started the move and after creating havoc in the Dromore backline he fed the ball to Barker who in turn fed a scoring pass to the oncoming Rory Garnham whose intelligent attacking line allowed him to finish off an excellent counter attacking move.
Donaghadee’s defence fell short of its usually high standards in the final stages of the game and they allowed Dromore in for two late tries bring the full time scores to Dromore 17 – Donaghadee 24.
Scoops Man of the Match – Billy Allen
Donaghadee team: B.Allen ,C.McGivern, I Martindale, N Barker, P McKenzie, R.Garnham, P McKenzie A Lockhart, A.Barnes,G.Gordon, P.Eadie, K Auali’itia, J.Cooke, R.Martindale, C Hamilton, D.Thompson Subs: P.Collins, C.Woods
All Ireland Junior Cup qualification two years in a row then for the Dee – a magnificent effort once again from this dedicated squad – of which there are at least another dozen who did not have the opportunity to play last Saturday – which included winning ten of their last eleven league games. The Club and players would like to take this opportunity to thank the following: Joint Coaches Paul McKenzie and Stuart Hennessey, Assistant Coach Chris Good, Manager Peter Matthews and physio Niall Moraghan , skipper Alastair Lockhart and Vice-Captain Gareth Gordon, Chairman of Selectors Ian Fleming, Jonathan Martindale for his peerless match reports each week, Club Doctor Michael Doyle, photographer George Millar and Touch Judge Frank Humphreys (special thanks to Gavin Wallace for filling in at the Dromore game) together with the legions of support from many others both on and off the field.
Although the season has now finished for the 1st XV the 2nd and 3rd XVs have outstanding re-arranged games to play and their Captains and Managers will be in touch with all players.
This Sunday the Club welcome back the Perennials to Donaldson Park for the first time in many years. In addition to the main event which kicks off at 2:30pm there will also be some age grade rugby on offer with music and food after the game. This promises to be an excellent afternoon’s craic so make sure you don’t miss it.
