DONAGHADEE RFC – 46
-v-
HOLYWOOD RFC – 14
Match Reporter - Stephen Quinn

Donaghadee entertained Holywood at Donaldson Park hoping to continue their unbeaten run to make it nine victories out of nine and, hopefully, come away with a bonus point. On a clear but blustery day, Donaghadee won the toss and elected to play up the slope in the first half. The team had been reshuffled, demonstrating the depth of the squad and this meant Danny McBride starting at outhalf instead of Cooper. He had an early success converting a penalty from about 30 yards out with 5 minutes gone. After this Holywood looked the much busier side; they attacked strongly and put the Dee under pressure in their own 22. It was all Holywood for 10 minutes but, after a break from the half way line, our number 8, Conor McKee, took a pass on the outside, beat a man and neatly passed to his supporting back row player, Chris Hamilton who scored under the posts. McBride converted to make it 10-0 with 15 minutes gone.

Holywood applied more pressure but could not convert into points. The Dee kicked long and there was a Holywood knock-on and from the resulting scrum the referee awarded a penalty try after a number of successive drives by Donaghadee put the Holywood scrum back on its heels. It was 17- 0 at half time.

Early in the second half, Holywood came back into the game. They had a lot of possession but when the Dee scrum half, Matt Johnston, took the ball from a ruck just inside the Holywood half, he very neatly side-stepped two players to run in a great try from 40 metres out. McBride converted leaving the score at 24-0.

Holywood were not finished. They came roaring out from the kick-off and broke out down the right flank with an overlap in the backs. A last ditch tackle by McGivern shook the ball loose. It hit the head of a Holywood player, bounced into the hands of Rory Garnham and he ran in for a score to take it to 29-0. This secured the bonus point. The Dee now began to exert pressure through the forwards with our second rows, Ingham and Morrow taking the game to Donaghadee with a number of great forward charges that made ground on every occasion. The forwards set up a rolling maul on the Holywood 22m line and, from the resulting passing movement, our number 6, Dino Johnston went over in the corner to make it 34-0. It was good to see that Holywood were still in the game, they got their pack together and drove up the field to score in the corner. This brought the score to 34-7.

There was then 5 minutes of end to end play, Donaghadee knew that they had the bonus point in the bag and Holywood were trying to get something out of the match. From this broken play there was a ruck and once again Johnston, after some fleet footwork, beat the defenders and ran in a try from 30 metres, the conversion made it 41-7. The Dee then began to play some adventurous rugby with everyone looking to score and from this broken play, the Holywood centre picked up the ball around the halfway mark, broke the line with pace on the outside and scored under the posts to make it 41-14. Not to be outdone, Donaghadee’s centre, Stockton, broke from 35 metres, beat two men with a dummy and a side-step and scored out on the left to bring the final score to 46-14.

This was another fine example of team play by a squad who do not know what it’s like to lose. I emphasis the point that this is now a squad of players and not just 15 men. The spirit within this squad is second to none. There is a great work ethic among the players and though Johnston at scrum half scored twice and had a great game, for the hard work and the scrummaging that saw us awarded a penalty try, I would nominate our prop, Ryan Campbell, who definitely was playing, as man of the match.