Donaghadee consolidated their position behind Lurgan at the top of C3 with a hard won victory against a feisty Strabane outfit.

The Dee started confidently and after ten minutes of pressure playing “up the hill” Mark Cooper gave his side the lead with a well struck penalty. After another ten minutes of see-saw rugby had passed Strabane drew level by the same means after the Dee were penalised at scrum time. This seemed to galvanise the home side however and some delightful rugby finally saw centre Davy Kirkpatrick step inside his opposite number in midfield before offloading to partner Rory Garnham who outsprinted the opposition defence to score under the posts with Cooper adding the extras. At this stage Donaghadee were dominating most phases of play and will count themselves unfortunate not to extend their 10-3 lead by halftime.

The Dee started the second half much in the same way as they left the first putting the opposition under sustained pressure and, on 48 minutes, No. 8 Connor McKee broke blindside thirty five metres out and outpaced the unsuspecting and despairing Strabane defence to score in the corner. Once again Cooper extended the lead with a magnificent touchline conversion. At this point the large crowd of supporters thought the Dee would stretch out to win comfortably but this was not to be due to a combination of circumstances. Firstly Strabane brought on a hard running back row forward who immediately took the game to Dee and stirred his teammates to follow in his wake. The visitors now started to play an attritional game up front which met with much success putting the home side under significant pressure. The second issue was that the Dee now fell foul of the referee and became increasingly mystified by their inability to either interpret or react to a succession of decisions throughout the half. Along with their barnstorming back row this brought Strabane back into the game and, midway through the second period, they scored an unconverted try from a pushover. Five minutes later, after a rare foray into opposition territory, McKee was high-tackled in front of the posts on the 22 metre line and Cooper converted the ensuing penalty. The score now stood at 20-8 in the Dee’s favour with 15 minutes left. The Dee attacked once more from the restart but successive penalties brought Strabane back into the Dee 22 and their mauling game had the home side rocking on their heels. Eventually Strabane moved the ball wide and their full back scored in the corner despite what appeared to be a knock on in the last movement. The try remained unconverted to leave the score at 20-13 and the Dee faced a very nervous last 10 minutes. The young side showed their mettle however and led by the experienced Chris Hamilton, Matthew Stockton , Conor O’Byrne and Head Coach McKee held out in face of intense pressure to record an exceptionally hard fought victory.

Again, some excellent performances this week but Man of the Match has to go Hamilton whose strength, technique and experience stood out in all facets of the game – especially when the chips were down in the second half.

The Dee now travel to Virginia next Saturday to play what will undoubtedly by their most testing away game to date. Lurgan recorded another bonus point victory against Newry on Saturday and have stretched their lead over the Dee to two points with five games played.
As a footnote it is worth recording the off-field performance of the Strabane lads. Travelling by coach they remained long into the night in the Donaldson Park Clubhouse and entertained both the Dee faithful and themselves with some good old fashioned rugby craic. They certainly were a credit both to their Club and to the game in general – rugby as it should be!!

Finally thanks to all the guys and girls who helped out on and off the field to welcome & entertain both our guests and Dee members & supporters – rugby just doesn’t happen, it’s down to a lot of hard work and the Dee volunteers did us proud in that regard on Saturday.