With a host of unavailabilities and injuries to contend with coaches Paul McKenzie and John West introduced Rhys Thompson, Matthew Johnston, Paul Blewitt, Andy Cash, Andy Findlater and Blair Savage into the match-day squad with Adam Torrens making a positional change from prop to lock and Chris McGivern moving from his more familiar position on the wing to cover for injured skipper Alastair Lockhart at scrum-half.
Gareth Gordon assumed the captaincy and the Dee started strongly playing “up the hill” scoring the opening try with the first attack of the game through winger Thomas Slane who cleverly spun his way through the opposition defence after being released by incisive intervention into the line from full-back Billy Allen. Blewitt added the extras and soon took the score to 10-0 with a well-placed penalty kick. The Dee continued to press with centre Findlater making holes in the Wood defence time and again and scored their second try through lock Kyle Morrow who again spun and drove through the despairing opposition defence to score in the corner.

The Dee faithful on the sideline now settled back to witness a procession but Holywood had other ideas and struck back through the power of the abrasive pack and guile of some elusive runners in the their backs to score an unconverted try. Buoyed by the score Holywood were now dominating possession and pressed the Dee line for a sustained period before standout defence enabled the home side to clear their lines & open a line of attack for Allen to score the try of the day running in from just beyond Holywood’s ten metre line slicing through the defence and dummying a pass to Slane before cutting back inside to cross the line leaving Blewitt to convert.

At a turnaround score of 22-7 against Holywood started the second half the much stronger of the two sides and again scored due mainly through the belligerence of their never-say-die pack. Wood continued to press but were undone when a careless pass was snaffled by Dee centre Ryan Irvine who ran from the half way to score under the posts despite the attention of the despairing Holywood defence. Soon afterwards the Dee attacked from the halfway and Blewiit, who was thoroughly enjoying his return to the big stage, placed a teasing grubber kick for left-wing Slane to follow up on and score in the far left hand corner.

At this point Holywood could have been forgiven for lying down but this was not an option and they once again maintained the lion’s share of possession and scored the third try of the day after sustained pressure from both backs and the forward pack. Donaghadee were to have the last say however and Allen once again carved through a tiring Holywood defence to complete his brace and allow Blewitt to add the extras to leave the final score 41-17 in favour of the home side.

A very entertaining afternoon at Donaldson Park then with Donaghadee profiting from the opportunity to explore their options against dogged opposition. Impressive performances from all the players who came into the mix but most accolades are probably reserved for the veteran duo of Blewitt & Allen together with the excellent forays of youthful No. 8 Stephen Adams who all brought their not inconsiderable influence to bear on a game which will carry the Dee back to league duties with a renewed optimism.