Match Report by Geoff Ingham

Dee opened their league campaign on Saturday when they welcomed BHSFP to Donaldson Park.

There were 1st XV debuts for Rhys Thompson at prop, Alex Shaw at scrum half, and centres Conor Moore and Cohen Hurley. Daniel Onstwedder captained the team from the No8 position.

The Dee kicked off with the strong breeze at their backs but it was the former pupils who had the best of the first quarter. It was only stout defending by the Dee that kept their line in tact after several forays into the Dee 22.

After ten minutes Dee were penalised for an infringement at a ruck. The resulting penalty kick struck the upright and was safely gathered by Chris Hamilton who then found touch with a fine kick.

As the game entered the second quarter the Dee saw much more of the ball and began to put some good phases of play together. Charlie Wallis was bundled into touch five metres from the line and Adam Russell went close on the other wing. Eventually Dee put some points on the board on the half hour mark.

When Dee were awarded a penalty on the BFHSP 22 metre line Ray Dobson took a quick tap and made some ground before the forwards recycled the ball. It was then whipped out to Hurley who ran in to score in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed to leave the score 5 -0 to the Dee at half time.

With the wind picking up the Dee knew they were in for a difficult 40 minutes as the second half got underway. And so it proved as the High School set up camp in the Dee half. The scores were level after 48 minutes when they scored in the left-hand corner after several phases of play. BHSFP’s tails were up and they continued to bombard the Dee’s line.

To their credit the Dee defended manfully, including a superb try saving tackle by the evergreen Chris Hamilton. However, with fifteen minutes remaining the visitors took the lead when they managed to score in the right-hand corner. The conversion was missed to leave the score 10-5 to BHSFP.

As the minutes ticked by it was difficult to see how the Dee were going to score but as the visitors forwards began to tire the Dee worked themselves into the BHSFP’s 22. Dee were then awarded a penalty and in the last play of the game Will Hopes tapped and set up a ruck, Robbie Ingham spun the ball out and Cohen Hurley beat his man and then forced his way over by the posts to level the score. Adam McGrath slotted the conversion to give the Dee 12 -10 lead as the referee blew for full time.

A good team effort from the Dee who had to dig deep to pick up four points. Chris Hamilton was the stand out forward on the pitch but man of the match goes to Cohen Hurley for scoring a brace of tries on his debut.

Lots of work to do on the training ground before the Dee travel to play Grosvenor next Saturday, 2.30 k.o.