Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee travelled to Monaghan on Saturday and with both teams unbeaten so far this season it was an anxious journey. Due to the heavy overnight rain the Dee envisaged having to play a tight game in moist conditions, however, they arrived in Monaghan to find excellent playing conditions bathed in bright autumnal sunshine. Dee got off to the perfect start when Stephen Adams caught the kick off and then after some excellent driving, rucking and offloading, by almost all 15 players, Matthew Stockton went over in the corner before Monaghan had touched the ball. Only 5 minutes later the Dee scored their second try when Karl Yellop broke through the defensive line to score under the posts. Mark Cooper was successful with the conversion to make the score 12-0. Monaghan began to exert some pressure which was eventually rewarded when the referee blew for a penalty try when a Dee player infringed at a maul close to the try line. Donaghadee responded almost immediately when Chris McGivern scored in the corner after some exciting interplay from both forwards and backs. The difficult kick was converted by Cooper. Monaghan, however, would not lie down and after some strong drives by their forwards they managed to touch down in the corner to bring the score to 17-12 after half an hour. Dee secured their try bonus point when Robbie Ingham finished off a fine move after Paul Johnston had made one of his trademark breaks. A few minutes later Ingham bagged his second try when good work by fullback Richard Bailie put Ingham in the clear to scamper home. Monaghan had the last word in the first half when their full-back made an impressive break and from the resulting ruck their number 8 crashed over. The conversion was successful to leave the half time score 31-19 to Donaghadee.

Donaghadee started the second half in impressive form and put the result beyond doubt by scoring a brace of tries within the first 10 minutes of the half. Firstly, McGivern scored his second try of the day when he finished off a textbook move from the backs and then Sam Ingham was in support to crash over from 5 yards to ensure brother Robbie wasn’t the only Ingham on the scoresheet. An unexpected lapse of concentration from Donaghadee let Monaghan pick up their own try bonus point in the 55th minute when their winger finished off a simple move. This only spurred Donaghadee on to play some excellent rugby in the last quarter of the game. The front row of Jamie Wilson, Morgan McCartney and the evergreen Chris Good ensured our scrum remained solid and the second rows Owen Roberts and Andy McCracken worked tirelessly throughout the match. Chris Hamilton, as usual, had an excellent game and was rewarded with a try of his own when he barged through the Monaghan defence to score under the posts. Shortly after Wilson made a break and fed captain Stockton who outpaced the opposition to score his second try. As the game drew to a close the travelling supporters (over 20 of them had made the journey) were treated to a final try when prop Wilson got the ball at the 10 metre line, brushed off 3 defenders and then sprinted for the line and managed to touch down to score a magnificent individual try to leave the final score 62-24 to Donaghadee. This was an excellent team effort and all 17 players performed well on the day, however, after much deliberation, the man- of- the- match award goes to prop Jamie Wilson for his all round performance, topped off by his fine try. Donaghadee entertain PSNI next Saturday at Donaldson Park at 2.30pm.