Despite the weathermen’s darkest predictions Saturday turned into a beautiful afternoon for Donaghadee’s first Qualifying League One game of the season at Donaldson Park. The visitors were newly promoted University of Ulster Coleraine who won Qualifying Two last season. The Dee greeted the game with not a little trepidation remembering their own arrival in Q1 this time last year when they defied the odds to score 50 odd points in their opening game.
The Dee side showed a few changes from last week with Richard Martindale, Paul McKenzie and Nigel Barker returning after injury and holidays and Jack Cooke making his debut for the 1st XV. On the debit side Davy Thompson, Paul Hamilton and Richard Millar were on holiday and Vice-Captain Gareth Gordon was on the injury list along with long term absentee Kyle Morrow who will be out of the game for a few months with the nasty knee injury picked up in the Bangor game last week.
Click HERE for 20+ Action shots from Kerry
The Dee opened strongly playing an expansive game urged on by Joint Coach Paul McKenzie making his debut in the centre. After UUC infringed between the 10 and 22 metre lines Nigel Barker stepped up to score the Dee’s first points of the competitive season with a well struck penalty. Soon afterwards, however, the Dee committed a similar offence in front of their own posts and the UUC kicker brought the game back to level terms with the ensuing penalty. At this point the Dee lineout was operating particularly sweetly and after ball was secured inside the opposition 22 and a oncerted drive by the pack brought just reward when Kalave Auali’itia barged his way over the line.
Unfortunately, at his point McKenzie had to leave the field – a bang on the head exacerbating the mild food poisoning from which he had been suffering from early morning – with Mark Cooper coming on to deputise.
At half time the score was 8-3 in favour of the Dee and the home side continued to dominate open exchanges with the back row of Chris Hamilton, Martindale and David Murray particularly prominent. In one movement 10 minutes into the second half multi phase play resulted in Hamilton receiving the ball wide out and the burly flanker used his speed and power to break the UUC defence and score in the corner to bring the game to 13-3 in the Dee’s favour.
Auali’itia, Martindale and Cooke continued to dominate lineout possession helped by Phil McCaughey’s pinpoint throwing but were counteracted by UUC’s powerful driving play. On 60 minutes outhalf Paul Blewitt gathered the ball from a UUC defensive kick, fed to Hamilton who took contact before delivering a sweetly measured offload to the supporting Blewitt who split the defence to score untouched under the UUC posts – a memorable effort indeed. With the score now at 20-3 skipper scrum half Alastair Lockhart marshalled his troops and kept the opposing back row honest with his trademark sniping runs around the base. The Dee front row of Neill McCullough, McCaughey and Alaistair Barnes were beginning to bring their influence to bear on the game and Cooke and Murray were causing difficulty in the opposition ranks with their strong driving play. In defence the evergreen Billy Allen demonstrated his rock solidity in the tackle and his running ability in offence ably supported by Chris McGivern and competitive debutant winger Peter Wilson. Joint Coach Stewart Hennessey then freshened things up a little by bringing on Ryan Willis into the front row.
With 15 to go the Dee’s longest serving 10 Blewitt again split the UUC defence from open play to run under the posts and bring the first bonus point of season to the warm appreciation of the large onlooking Donaldson Park support.
Probably with sense of “job done” the Dee then relaxed their hold on the game somewhat and the dogged UUC side came back late in the game to score two tries to bring the final score to 27-17 in favour of the home side.
A satisfying season opener then for the new coaching team at the Dee who although pleased with the result will be keen to stymie the defensive lapses which occurred late in the game. Man of the Match performances came from Hamilton and Martindale who were both immense throughout the duration of the game. A starring role too from the engine room with Auali’itia and Cooke producing storming performances. Moment of the Match came from tight head prop Barnes who, after giving him a 10 metre start, ran down the UUC right winger over 60 metres bundling him into touch to deny was what was looking like a certain score.
The other scores in Qualifying One were:
Ballymoney 26 Academy 11
Clogher Valley 27 Coleraine 29
Portadown 22 Dromore 8
and in Conference League One
Cooke 15 Armagh II 18
Mark Mitchell’s 3rd XV travelled to Hollywood and suffered a defeat to a VERY strong local side. On a bright sunny afternoon in Hollywood both teams up for the first match of the season.l
Hollywood winning the toss opted to kick off and Donaghadee chose to have the wind to their backs. Both teams started off strongly with both packs going blow for blow in the scrums . Unfortunately in the wide channels Hollywood had the extra pace from their extremely strong side scoring nearly at will.
Second half started off in the same fashion both packs putting the hard work in. Some key decisions, it appeared to the Dee mean, went against them resulting in more Hollywood tries. With minutes left looking like a white wash ,Donaghadee’s own Bobby Harpur intercepted a loose pass to run in the Dee’s only unconverted try , final score 53-5
There will be better days for the 3’s and Mark would urge all his lads to continue their support not only on game days but on training nights as well.
Next Saturday the 1st XV travel to Ballymoney, the 2nd XV host Instonians III and the 3rd XV are at home to Malone IV.
Correction to last week’s report – training start times are 7:00pm NOT 7:30pm on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
Just a reminder in regard to the All Ireland Junior Cup on 27th October 2012. The Dee have been drawn away to Ballina and it is anticipated – at this stage – that there will be a coach going from the Dee early that Saturday morning with an overnight stay in the North Mayo town returning late Sunday afternoon – watch this space over the next few weeks for more detail.
Finally you may have noticed the excellent photographs which are appearing in Facebook and the local media covering action from the Dee’s games. These are due to Kerry Wood whose husband Simon is a 3s regular and whose children play in the Dee Youth Section. Many thanks are due to Kerry from the Club for her excellent efforts which are certainly helping to keep the Dee to the fore in all forms of media.
