Dee welcomed Civil Service to Donaldson Park on Saturday for a league fixture in Championship 3. Before the kick off the P6s and P7s of both clubs took part in mini rugby as a warm up to the senior game.

With Daniel Onstwedder and Matthew Stockton both unavailable and Sam Ingham still on the injury list the Dee had to make a few changes to their lineup. Nathan Boyd moved into the back row and Owen Roberts started at lock. Pete Causby started at scrum half, Robbie Ingham in the centre and Matthew Pentland at fullback.

With the heavy rain all week the groundstaff had done a wonderful job to allow the match to go ahead although the moist conditions would make handling difficult for both teams. The Dee opened their account after eight minutes when, after several phases of play, it was Nathan Boyd who crashed over to score. Matthew Pentland was successful with the difficult conversion to take the score to 7-0.

Civil Service created a few opportunities during the next 20 minutes but Dee’s defence stood firm with solid tackling by both backs and forwards. The Dee scrum was dominating the opposition, mainly due to the experience of the front row Phil Eadie, Davy Skipp and Ray Dobson and Dee soon found themselves inside the Service 22. From a lineout they set up a driving maul and it was the captain, Davy Skipp, who got the touchdown. The conversion missed narrowly but the Dee now led 12-0.

The visitors lost a man to the bin for a dangerous tackle, however, the Dee were not able to take advantage of the numerical disparity. Towards the end of the half Service had a couple of penalty attempts but both were missed to leave the half time score 12-0 to the Dee.

A couple of minutes into the second half Service were reduced to fourteen men again and this time the Dee did take advantage. The Dee forced their way into the Service 22 and from a ruck in front of the posts Pete Causby decided to go himself and darted past a couple of defenders and dived over to score his first try for the 1st XV. Pentland converted to give the Dee a 19-0 lead.

Ten minutes later the Dee scored the bonus point try when Pentland scored an excellent individual effort. Finding a gap in the Service defence he weaved his way past the last defender and then headed for the corner and managed to dive over the line. Unfortunately, as he scored he suffered a nasty facial injury and could not continue.

Service kept battling for the remainder of the match but Dee managed to keep their line intact, thanks to some resilient defending, even when reduced to fourteen for the last ten minutes. Final score 24-0 to the Dee.

This was an excellent performance by the Dee, their attack much more clinical and their defence very solid throughout the eighty minutes. Lots of contenders this week for man of the match including Phil Eadie, Davy Skipp and Ray Dobson who all rolled back the years and put in an excellent shift in the front row. However, this week the award goes to young Pete Causby who had an excellent game at scrum half and topped it off with his first try for the Club.

Next week the Dee travel to Newry for another league encounter, K.O. 2.30 p