Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee entertained Virginia on Saturday in what turned out to be one of their hardest games of the season so far. With Matthew Stockton, Danny McBride and Jamie Wilson unavailable and Paul Johnston failing a late fitness test, the Dee had to make a few changes with Davy Kirkpatrick, Chris Knox, Rab Irwin and Chris Scott coming into the starting fifteen and Matthew Mingout taking a place on the bench. Virginia kicked off and the ball was well fielded by the Dee captain, Chris Hamilton. Unfortunately, after several good phases of play, the ball was knocked on by the Dee and at the resulting scrum the referee awarded Virginia a penalty. This gave Virginia the initiative and for the next ten minutes they had most of the possession and territory. Dee stayed calm under the pressure and good covering defence by Sam Ingham and a solid scrum in their 22 saw out-half Mark Cooper relieve the pressure with a fine touch kick. As the drizzle continued to fall, the moist conditions made it difficult for both teams to play entertaining rugby with the ball becoming the proverbial bar of soap. The first score of the day came on 16 minutes when the Virginia out-half had his clearance kick charged down by the Ingham brothers and from the following ruck centre Karl Yellop made one of his customary breaks and was only stopped short of the line by a Virginia infringement. Cooper slotted home the penalty to give Dee a 3-0 lead. Five minutes later Dee extended their lead when they were awarded a penalty in the middle of the park and Cooper drilled the kick into the corner. From the line out the forwards set up a rolling maul and as they made their way towards the line the ball was unexpectedly spun out to Cooper who stepped inside his opposite number to score. Cooper was unable to convert his own try which left the score 8-0 to the Dee. This score seemed to spur Virginia into action and they spent the majority of the next ten minutes in the Dee’s half. However, they could not break down the Dee’s organised defence with some great tackling by both forwards and backs. This defensive pressure paid off after 32 minutes when Virginia were penalised for holding on in the ruck. Cooper kicked for the corner and Dee won the lineout. This time they ran the ball and fullback Chris Knox beat his defender and off -loaded to Davy Kirkpatrick who touched down under the posts. Cooper converted to leave the half time score 15-0 to the Dee.

The second half played out similar to the first with Virginia pressing hard through their forwards and the Dee trying to run the ball at every opportunity. A succession of penalties against the Dee saw Virginia spend considerable time in the Dee’s half. As has been the case for all of the season so far, Dee’s defence stood firm throughout this bombardment and they kept their line intact, with some excellent defence from the likes of Hamilton, Chesney, Ingham and McCracken in the forwards and Cooper, McGivern and Yellop in the backs. Dee continued to push for more scores but had to wait until the 70th minute to register their third try. After several phases of play Dee found themselves 15 metres from the Virginia line when the referee signaled for a penalty to the Dee. From the free play Mingout showed maturity beyond his years and launched a high up and under towards Virginia’s posts. Winger Robbie Ingham raced through and skillfully gathered the ball to crash over the line for the best try of the game. Cooper was successful with the easy conversion to make the score 22-0 to the Dee. In the final ten minutes of the game Dee pushed for a fourth try but a valiant Virginia team competed to the final whistle and denied the Dee a bonus point. On reflection, this was probably the most lackluster performance from the Dee this year, however, they did enough to secure a vital win.

So, at the halfway point Dee top the table, winning 11 out of 11 games, but this game proved that the Dee cannot become complacent in any of their matches if they are to gain promotion to section 2. Next week Dee entertain BHSFP at 2.30pm at Donaldson Park.