Gordon West Cup 1st Round
BHSFP v Dee
Match Reporter - Ryan Campbell

One of DRFC's key goals at the start of the season was the Gordon West Cup and the opportunity for a return to Ravenhill for the men from Donaldson Park. On Saturday they had the opportunity to set the wheels in motion as they travelled the short jaunt, comparative with other recent away fixtures, to Greenisland to face Belfast High School Former Pupils.

After a flat warm-up and a rocket from the coaching team the Dee came out of the blocks firing with slick hands and some fantastic offloading forcing the High School to concede yards with almost every carry. The returning Chris McGivern was the beneficiary of Chris Hamilton's perfectly weighted, if not entirely accidental, grubber kick through with the wing capitalising on the disbelief of the defensive line to dot down, McBride's conversion putting the Dee 7-0 up before the High School had the chance to play any rugby.

The Dee set piece was the focus of this weeks training and it certainly payed off, with a solid and at times dominating scrum providing the platform for the backs to work some magic in midfield before sending Connor McKee, making an appearance on the wing, over in the corner to put the Dee 12-0 up.

By this stage the Dee's confidence was sky high and they were playing the brand of running rugby that the conditions wouldn’t allow in recent weeks; the backrow of Hamilton, Stockton and O’Byrne punching holes in the High School defence, keeping the attacks alive with some great offloads. It was from one of these breaks where Donaghadee set up the platform for their third. Captain Sonny-Bill Stockton finding himself on the wing before throwing an outrageous back door pass to Campbell in support, quick work at the breakdown led to Sam Ingham coming up just short of the line before the elder statesman of the Donaghadee pack Dan Lindsey rolled back the years to crash over from short range. 17-0 Dee at the break.

An injury to Elliot Vollands meant a reshuffle in the Donaghadee pack with Adam ‘Beef’ Torrens coming off the bench to make an almost immediate impact. With the ball 10 out from the High School line the ball was fed to Beef and with defenders following the lines of dummy runners the front row only had his confusion to overcome before dotting the ball down between the posts. McBrides conversion making it 24-0 to Donaghadee.

The Donaghadee scrum continued to be a weapon all afternoon with its dominance leading to the 5th try of the afternoon; a High School scrum 5m out from their own line was sent marching backwards by the Dee men allowing scrum half Chris Scott to dive on a loose ball under the posts, the points will go to Scott but it was certainly one for the pack.

The Dee were still throwing the ball about and quick hands from Morrow allowed Campbell some space down the wing, only for a misguided attempt at an unnecessary sidestep stopping the front row crossing in the corner; something which we think may be the topic of conversation this week.

The Dee did get over for a 6th a short time later, again the Dee scrum proving too strong for the High Schools tiring pack allowing number 8 Connor O’Byrne to cross for the try.

An injury to Chris Hamilton meant the Dee finished the game with 14 men and the High School certainly took advantage, some good hands in midfield allowed their young number 8 to crash through the centre, the conversation however was charged down.
Final score Belfast High School FPs 5 – 36 Donaghadee.

Man of the Match - Ryan Campbell (its not a fix! Voted by the team)

Donaghadee number 8 Nick Mawhinney sadly had to withdraw from the game on Friday evening following a family bereavement; the thoughts of everyone at Donaghadee Rugby Club are with the Mawhinney family at this time.

Next Up for Donaghadee is a make or break trip away to Monaghan who sit just one place behind Dee in the table having made a near perfect start to the league themselves.

An independant report can be found here: http://thefrontrowunion.com/2017/10/gordon-west-cup-bhsfp-5-donaghadee-36/