Dee made the long journey to Cavan on Saturday for Championship 3 League encounter. With several players unavailable it gave the coaching staff an opportunity to introduce a few young players to senior rugby. Callum Moore, Charlie McCaw and Peter Causby all made their first fifteen debut for the Club.

Dee started well and soon began to put together some good passages of play and continually forced Cavan on the back foot. However, they had to wait until the eighteenth minute to break the deadlock. Outhalf Jody Newell sent an up and under into the Cavan 22 and followed up his own kick outpacing the last defender to touchdown. Matthew Pentland converted to give the Dee a 7-0 lead.

Cavan then came back into the game and when Dee lost a line out in their own 22 Cavan spun the ball wide and their winger scored in the corner. The conversion was missed to leave the Dee with a slender two-point lead.

Dee extended that lead shortly afterwards when Davy Skipp ran a short penalty and slick hands from Dylan Robinson allowed Matthew Stockton to crash over for an unconverted try. Cavan then lost a man to the bin for a high tackle just before half time.

However, Dee must have thought the half time whistle had blown already as they slipped off several tackles allowing the Cavan centre to dance his way over the line to make the half time score 12-12.

Dee went ahead again after only 5 minutes of the second half. This time it was Nathan Boyd who wrestled his way over after several drives by the forwards. Pentland converted to make it 19-12.

Dee than had a player binned for a deliberate knock on and Cavan took advantage when they scored after a strong rolling maul. The conversion was successful to level the scores at 19-19.

With fifteen minutes to go Cavan then lost two players in quick succession to yellow cards and the Dee took full advantage soon after when the impressive Daniel Ontswedder was on the end of a Robbie Ingham pass and scampered over for Dee’s bonus point try which Pentland converted.

Even with the home team back to full strength the Dee continued to dominate and in the last five minutes of the game pulled away with a couple more tries. Boyd got his second of the day and in the final play of the day Ray Dobson forced his way over. Pentland kept his kicking boots on by kicking both conversions to leave the final score 40-19 to the Dee.

This was an excellent performance by the Dee considering the number of changes of personnel. Causby, Moore and McCaw had excellent debuts and should be proud of their efforts. Onstwedder, Stockton and Ingham all put their hands up for man of the match but this week the award goes to Dylan Robinson who was excellent throughout the eighty minutes in both the tight and the loose.

The guys get a week off next week to celebrate at the wedding nuptials of vice-captain Sam Ingham. The following week, 6th December, the Dee welcome Cavan to Donaldson Park, 2.30 K.O.