Match Reporter - Geoff Ingham

Second placed Donaghadee were to entertain fourth placed Virginia on Saturday at Donaldson Park, however, due to the heavy overnight rain the pitch was deemed unplayable. Thankfully, Bangor Grammar School kindly let us play on one of the school pitches so the merry band of supporters were transported over to Bangor to watch what turned out to be an entertaining game of rugby on a moist but otherwise excellent playing surface.

Donaghadee came flying out of the blocks, winning a turnover immediately from the kick off. Although the kick to the corner was misjudged, Sam Ingham charged down the subsequent drop-out and the Donaghadee forwards pressurised the Virginia pack on their own line and the ever-alert Chris Hamilton pounced on the ball as it touched the try line. Cooper converted to take the score to 7-0. Virginia, who were fully charged up for this encounter, began to put some phases together and showed a degree of superiority in the early scrums. The Donaghadee defence stood up well to this challenge and eventually won a turnover to relieve the pressure. Once in possession the Dee played some great rugby, keeping the ball alive and using the full width of the pitch eventually scoring when the mercurial scrum half, Paul Johnston, finished off a fine move that was converted by Cooper to put Dee 14-0 ahead.

To Virginia’s credit they came back at the Dee once again, their scrum-half providing the impetus with some darting runs from quickly taken penalties. With the wind at their backs they pushed Donaghadee into their own 22 and a lapse of concentration from the Dee at a line out resulted in Virginia scoring in the corner. The conversion was missed and with the score at 14-5 the Dee knew that the next score was vital.
That score came 5 minutes later when Virginia were penalised for being offside and Cooper converted a difficult kick against the wind to take the score to 17-5.

For the first half hour the game had been played in a hard but good-spirited manner by both teams so it was surprising to see a player from each side receive a yellow card after the first small fracas. This, however, seemed to spur Donaghadee into action and in the next 15 minutes probably played the best attacking rugby of the season so far. Firstly, after more running rugby, Sam Ingham picked up from the base of a scrum and drove forward, almost making the line but from the resulting ruck captain Matthew Stockton forced his way over and Cooper converted. Almost immediately from the restart Donaghadee scored the vital bonus point try when Johnston again finished off a fine flowing move that had the large Donaghadee crowd dancing with delight. Cooper continued his fine kicking display by slotting over the conversion. At this stage Johnston was on fire and after another great break, swatting defenders off him like flies, he sent the supporting Sam Ingham over in the corner to make the score 36-5.

Just when it looked that the half would come quietly to a close, there followed 5 minutes of madness which could have had a huge affect on the result of this game. Firstly, Cooper was rather harshly sent to the bin when he was penalised for the first high tackle of the game and then, during a Virginia short penalty move, Connor McKee was judged to be offside and received a second yellow which meant a red card and Donaghadee were suddenly down to 13 men. Critically, the Dee defence held firm for the last few minutes of the half and turned round with the score at 36-5.

With only thirteen men the Dee’s tactics had to change in the second period to ensure they played most of the game in Virginia’s half. They managed to soak up Virginia’s pressure in the middle of the park by excellent, disciplined defence and with the wind behind them Johnston and Cooper, when he returned, kept Virginia pinned back with some astute kicking. Gradually Virginia ran out of ideas and Donaghadee took total control of the game. The scrums, where Dee had struggled early on, became a platform for many of their attacks, the front row of Campbell, Kirkpatrick and Collins gaining in confidence every scrum and Morrow and O’Byrne looking solid in the second row. Stockton joined the forwards after the red card and contributed greatly alongside the dependable Hamilton. At No 8, Ingham was having another great game and proved a threat every time he picked up from the base of the scrum. It was from one of these pick-ups that saw Kyle Morrow crash over from short range. Cooper converted to leave the score 43-5. Another try followed shortly when Ingham picked up a loose kick and fed Cooper who danced his way down the touchline before sending Kirkpatrick over in the corner.

Any time Virginia had possession the Dee’s defence was immense and more often than not resulted in a turnover or a mistake from Virginia. By this stage of the game Donaghadee had thrown caution to the wind and this resulted in two fine tries to finish off the game, the first one coming from the impressive Chris Knox and the final try being scored by Dee stalwart Rory Garnham, to leave the final score 58-5.
So another impressive win by this Donaghadee team to maintain their push for promotion. A real team effort from start to finish, every player contributed to a well organised defence that created a platform for their free flowing attack.

There were many contenders for the Man of the Match award but the stand out player on the day, for his all round contribution in defence and attack, was Donaghadee’s No 8 Sam Ingham.