There was a quality start to the new season at Shaws Bridge on Friday night when Dungannon II garnered a deserved set of league points at the expense of Instonians. The hosts won the toss and elected to play with the sun and breeze on their backs as Dungannon made it a jittery start. However, once awarded a penalty the visitors rolled forward with a piece of good ball recycling for industrious prop Ben Howard to crash over on seven minutes.
0 – 5
Inst hit back and were unlucky to see a midfield pass dropped when a try looked a certainty. That said a fortuitous penalty try gave them a fifteenth minute lead.
7 – 5
Undeterred Dungannon clawed their way back into the Instonians half and when John McGuckin joined the back line he sliced open the home defence to put Gannon back in front. Stuart McCloskey added the extras after twenty-five minutes.
7 – 12
Dungannon fielded well at the restart and once into the Inst half newcomer, Jaryd Bennett flung out a wide pass for Brian Simpson to dart in two minutes later.
7 – 17
Inst had chances to close the gap ahead of the break but two penalties were missed and when they tried a chip kick on the right Wayne Burrows collected and ran from defence.
Dungannon started the second half well with two converted tries within five minutes. First it was a searing break from John McGuckin that led to a notable run from Darren Simpson. Inst stemmed the initial danger before Stuart McCloskey stepped through the midfield defence to score at the posts. A drop kick added the extras. Two minutes later out on the right wing Brian Simpson collected a diagonal kick from Jaryd Bennett before touching down. Jaryd converted.
7 – 31
The hosts looked stunned at this lead but things did not improve for them as Stuart McCloskey completed his ‘hat trick’ with two more tries before the hour mark
7 – 41.
Chris Swann then added Dungannon’s eighth try in the final quarter to complete the scoring.
7 – 46
A good opener for the 2nds with the three quarters converting possession into points.
Team: John McGuckin (Capt). Brian Simpson, Stuart McCloskey, Wayne Burrows, Darren Simpson. Jaryd Bennett, Chris Swann. Charlie Sargaison, Adam Boyle, Ben Howard. Richard Holmes, Rodney Blair. Neil Magowan, Gareth James, Robin McCleary
Referee: Robbie Watson (Enniskillen)
Tries: Ben Howard, John McGuckin, Brian Simpson (2), Stuart McCloskey (3) & Chris Swann.
Conversions: Stuart McCloskey (2) & Jaryd Bennett
Penalty:
