On a rather moist Saturday morning the President was in full control in the car park, ensuring all the players and supporters were on the bus and ready to travel to our first away match of the season to Donegal and apart for one schoolboy error he did a fine job.
After the long journey the team were keen to get changed and begin their warm up and were hoping to have a repeat of their performance at home a week earlier.

As the match kicked off the Dee literally faced an uphill battle as they were playing up the considerable slope and into the face of the driving rain. This, however, did not deter them and they quickly had the home team encamped inside their own 22, with the forwards making powerful drives towards the line. Whether it was excitement, panic or white line fever, it looked as if the Dee were going to have nothing to show for this early dominance. So there was a degree of relief for the travelling supporters when Conor McKee picked up the ball from the base of a scrum and crashed over in the corner for the first score of the day after 13 minutes.

Donaghadee continued to pressurise the opposition and 10 minutes later were rewarded when the Dee pack pushed Donegal off their own scrum, Conor McKee picking up and sending Robbie Ingam over for try number two which was well converted from the touchline by Mark Cooper.

Donegal began to come back into the game and tested the Dee’s defence on a few occasions, which seemed up to the task with some robust tackling from the likes of Sam Ingham, Dan Lindsay, Gareth Deering and Matthew Johnson.
Donegal were then reduced to 14 men just prior to half time but Donaghadee were not able to capitalise on this numerical advantage before the half time whistle blew with the score at 12-0.

Hopes were high as the second half began and the Dee started to play much more controlled rugby, going through the phases and getting the basics right. This paid dividends after 10 minutes when, after a good lineout take from Jack Matthews, Cooper kicked into space which Rory Garnham followed up and pressurised Donegal into an error. From the resulting scrum Ingham went over in the corner to score his second of the day which Cooper converted to make the score 19-0.

Five minutes later the bonus point was secured when the forwards set up a great driving maul from a lineout and drove over the line for the fourth try of the day, Dan Lindsay eventually emerging with the ball. Cooper again converted a difficult kick to move the score along to 26-0.
Donaghadee continued to play good rugby for the next 10 minutes and scored a fifth try when, after good interplay between backs and forwards, scrum half Chris Scott put a clever kick into the corner and Dan McBride won the race to the touch down to put the score at 31-0.
To Donegal’s credit they did not let their heads drop and indeed had the best of the last 15 minutes of the match. Donaghadee were forced to defend their line time and time again and only some great tackling and driving from the likes of Phil Collins and captain Matthew Stockton kept Donegal out. Unfortunately a sin-binning didn’t help the cause and eventually Donegal crossed the line in the final play of the match to leave the final score 31-5 in Donaghadee’s favour.

So it was mission accomplished for the Dee with 5 well earned points, however, the team realise that the performance was far from perfect and there are plenty of things to work on this week in training to ensure a better performance at home to Newry on Saturday.

After the game, Club President, John Blewitt thanked Donegal for the jerseys, the hospitality and the craic which made the long journey home seem just that little bit shorter.