With the pitches at Donaldson Park in poor condition the Towns Cup game against Towns & Junior Cup holders Ballynahinch II was switched to Bangor Grammar School to avail of their excellent facilities (a great debt of gratitude is owed to the school for their help and assistance in making this happen) and the Dee faithful travelled in numbers more in hope than expectation given the nature of the task ahead.

Although starting strongly against their much vaunted opponents a lack of concentration and suspect defence led to the Hinch scoring two quick fire tries against the Dee. Soon afterwards hooker Gareth Deering was lost to an ankle injury but, despite the disruption, out-half Matk Cooper pulled the score back to 12-3 with a well placed penalty and the Dee competed well before the Hinch stretched their lead to 19-3 with an excellent effort after a period of sustained pressure within which the influence of their Club Head coach Brian McLaughlin was well to the fore with their pick & go and offloading game.

Further woe was to befall the Dee when skipper Matthew Stockton took a team yellow card after the fourth penalty in a row was awarded to the opposition. Two minutes later No. 8 Connor O'Byrne followed him to bin after he was harshly adjudged to have high tackled the Hinch left-wing who appeared to either slip or dip into contact. With only the 13 men the Dee were in for a very hard ten minutes or so..... or so we thought! The home side won a penalty and Cooper kicked to touch and from the ensuing lineout . Substitute line thrower Ryan Campbell his target and the pack mauled their way to the line before Campbell smuggled the ball over the line for welcome 5 points. Now making use of the wind the Dee made their way back to the opposition 10 metre line and after a succession of rucks mercurial scrum-half Paul Johnston nipped through the Hinch back row and then proceeded to side-step and outpace the visiting defence to score what might be the try of the season to date. With Cooper adding the extras half-time time was reached and the Dee had pulled back to an unlikely 15-19.... and that when only having 13 players on the pitch.

The second-half began with the Dee now having to face the biting wind. With kicking out of hand difficult due to the conditions the Dee had to persevere and try and play out of defence. Unfortunately a mistimed pass led the Hinch breaking away and scoring a converted try. The Dee support now feared for the side after this setback but, with Stockton and O'Byrne restored the team played what was maybe their best rugby of the season. Orchestrated by Johnston & Cooper the Dee played a high pace offloading and rucking game with the back row of Chris Hamilton, Matthew Johnston & O'Byrne together with Phil Collins & Kyle Morrow to the fore providing a level of continuity which more than matched that the opposition had displayed in the first-half. The Hinch defence remained firm however and the loss to injury of the Dee's influential second-row Sam Ingham proved decisive as some impetus was lost and Hinch gradually made their way back into the game ending with another excellently crafted try in the corner. At 31-15 down the Dee now threw caution to the wind and, as more often than not happens in catch-up rugby, paid the price as the Hinch picked off loose ball to score two further tries to leave the final score at a somewhat flattering 45-15 win for the Cup holders.

A steep learning curve then for the young Dee side against what was clearly the best team they have played this season. However the portents remain good, the style of rugby exhilarating and the experience will hold them in good stead for the league and Gordon West Cup games to come.

No Man of Match this week - all 17 men played with pride, passion & skill. Next week sees C3 league rugby return to Donaldson Park when we welcome Cavan - a win especially crucial given that league leaders Lurgan slipped up last week against Letterkenny leaving the Dee just three points behind them with all to play for.