Donaghadee welcomed Strabane to Donaldson Park on Saturday for round 7 of the Championship 3 league fixtures. The Dee were without the injured Owen Roberts but were able to welcome back Davy Skipp and Sam Moore in the forwards, Robbie Ingham in the centre and Ali Lockhart on the bench.

With the pitch in great shape, albeit slightly moist, the calm conditions were going to be conducive to free-flowing rugby, and so it proved. Strabane started the stronger but the Dee defence managed to soak up the pressure. After an early penalty attempt for Strabane was pulled wide of the posts it was Dee who registered the first score. Sam Ingham managed to pluck the ball from the air before it reached touch and fed Johnny Moore on the wing. He passed inside to Robbie Ingham who made ground before finding Sam Moore. The big second row showed an impressive turn of pace to score under the posts. Matthew Pentland was successful with the conversion.

As the game entered the second quarter Dee were reduced to fourteen when a Dee back saw yellow for a trip on his opposite number. Strabane capitalised on this numerical advantage by scoring a brace of tries. The first when their impressive centre eluded two defenders to touch down and then convert his own try. The second when the scrum half dived over from a ruck close to the tryline. This time the conversion was unsuccessful to leave the score 12-7 to the visitors.

On the half hour Strabane extended their lead when the centre danced his way up the park to score another converted try. To their credit the Dee came roaring back and after several passages of play it was Nathan Boyd who forced himself over to score. The conversion was missed but the deficit was now only seven points.

Right on the stroke of half time Strabane scored their bonus point try when they eventually created an overlap and scored in the corner. This time the conversion was missed to leave the half time score 24-12 to Strabane. It was a great start to the second half for the Dee with Ray Dobson on the rampage, followed by drives by Rudi Ioasa and Dylan Robinson. The ball was flung wide to Sam Ingham who found Aaron McKee on the wing with a wonderful pass that allowed him to round the last defender to score. The conversion was successful, with a little help from a post, to narrow the deficit to five points.

Ten minutes later, however, Strabane pulled ahead again when their out-half chipped deep into the corner and a fortunate bounce allowed the winger to gather and score. The difficult kick was converted to make the score 31-19 and the Dee supporters were fearing the worst. However, Dee regrouped and as the game entered the final quarter it was that man Dobson again who barged his way past three defenders to crash over the line, leaving Pentland with an easy conversion.

Two minutes later Dylan Robinson made an excellent break, the young prop forward showing great pace as he ran forty yards down field. From the next ruck Pentland chipped over the top, McKee gathered and was stopped just short of the line but managed to offload to Boyd who made it over the line. The difficult kick was unsuccessful but the scores were now level at 31-31.

During the last 15 minutes of the game both sides had their chances to win. Strabane always looked dangerous on the break but the Dee’s defensive line was much more rigid than it had been in the first half and kept the visitors at bay. Dee did have a last-minute penalty attempt that just fell short and the referee ended the game with the scores level.

Overall, a much better team performance than the previous week and there were several contenders for man of the match including Dylan Robinson, Sam Moore and the Ingham brothers. This week, however, it goes to Nathan Boyd for his all-round performance including his brace of tries.

Next week sees the Dee travel to Newforge to play PSNI in the quarter final of the Gordon West Cup, k.o 2.30 pm.