DONAGHADEE RFC – 63
-v-
BELFAST HIGH SCHOOL FORMER PUPILS – 0

A splendid lunch, catered by Pier 36, with Eddie Grant as guest speaker, brought an impressive crowd to Donaldson Park. The game started with the Dee playing up the slope into the wind and sun. It was an evenly balanced game in the first five minutes but it soon became apparent that Donaghadee would have too much skill and power over Belfast High School FP. After 9 minutes, our number 8, Conor O’Byrne, broke on the left, beat a couple of men and passed to Stockton in the centre who scored easily. From the kick-off the same player made a break of at least 20 metres, fed inside and the rolling maul brought the play to the High School line. This would set the standard of play for the rest of the afternoon. On 15 minutes, Danny McBride at fullback used his space to make a wide break then passed inside to Sam Ingham who scored to bring it to 12-0. On 18 minutes, after 8 phases of play, Rory Garnham, fed beautifully by Ingham, scored in the corner to take it to 17-0. At this stage the Dee were dominating all aspects of play and High School were not helped when the referee showed a yellow card to their number 7 on 30 minutes. From the resulting penalty, with Ingham again to the fore in a well-balanced passing move, scrumhalf Paul Johnston scored under the posts to take it to 24-0 and secure the bonus point. The Dee were playing a very open style of rugby and this paid off when, after the ball passed through 6 players, our number 7, Stocky, scored to take it to 29-0. Once again, O’Byrne showed his skill in open play when he broke from the scrum and scored in the corner to take it to 34-0 at half time.

With the Dee playing down the slope and with the wind at their back the result was never in doubt and, after 3 minutes, Paul Johnston made a lovely break but was tackled illegally on his way to the line and the referee had no option but to award a penalty try to take it to 41-0. The next try was a team score but our front row, Adam Torrens deserves credit as he rose like a Phoenix out of a loose maul to take the ball over and make the score 46-0. Ryan Campbell then got himself on the end of 7 passes to score on the left corner, sliding in like a pro, to take the score to 51-0. High School were still trying to play rugby, they had 5 minutes of good play and they got into the Dee 22 but the Dee 1 possession when, after some nice inter-passing, our hooker, Gareth Deering ran 40 metres down the wing to make it 58-0. The last try was picked up by Chris Hamilton, who trotted in from 20 metres after a good passing move in the centre broke the High School line. This took the final score to 65-0 with the referee blowing for full time 15 minutes early.

This win came about as a result of the graft put in by a squad of 25 players; not a team effort, but a squad effort. It is difficult to nominate a player for man of the match when this was a great effort by all on the Park but Sam Ingham’s work rate was tremendous, he scored a try, made another and this nomination will please Geoff as much as Sam. Due to illness issues, we had a few last minute changes just before kick-off but it didn’t matter, the squad system proved infallible and so we head, unbeaten, to league leaders (on bonus points) Lurgan next Saturday. This will be an eagerly awaited top of the table tussle between two teams on top form. We need every Donaghadee supporter to get down to Lurgan and become one of the squad.