In front of a large festive crowd Donaghadee welcomed Monaghan to Donaldson Park for this long awaited fixture between the two sides at the top of Kukri Championship 3. In the reverse fixture a couple of months ago at Rafeenan Donaghadee had come away with what appeared to be a comfortable victory. However the Dee were mindful that they were a little flattered by a scoreline which had only stretched away in the last ten minutes and they also knew that their opponents presented the biggest challenge to the home side’s title aspirations. With Sam Ingham not quite ready to return from injury Chris Scott continued at No. 8, Jamie Wilson replaced the ill Rab Irwin at prop and Ben Siri returned from holiday to take a place on the bench alongside Jack Chesney.

As expected, the game began at a furious pace and, before long, the Dee were awarded a penalty. Fly half Mark Cooper spurned any suggestion of three points and kicked to the line but despite heavy pressure from the ensuing lineout maul the Monaghan defence held firm and eventually the line was cleared. Two minutes later the Dee were again awarded a penalty and Cooper repeated the strategy close to visitors line. Solid defence was again the order of the day and Monaghan turned over the scrambling Dee pack to once more deny the home side’s efforts. The faithful on the sideline wondered at that point if attempting to take the placekicks on offer would have been the better option and hoped that the Dee would not rue their apparent profligacy. Those fears were realised when Monaghan put together some sustained attacks and applied pressure through their abrasive pack deep in the home twenty-two. On the award of a succession of penalties Monaghan adopted the Dee approach and kicked to the line. The ensuing driving mauls deeply tested the Dee resolve but it was not found wanting and the home side turned over the ball on two occasions with Chris Hamilton and Chris Good particularly prominent in stemming the Monaghan tide. On twenty minutes however Andy McCracken was yellow-carded for foul play and Monaghan changed tactic allowing their No. 10 to slot over the ensuing penalty to give his side a 3-0 lead. To compound Donaghadee’s misery their talismanic scrum-half Paul Johnston left the field two minutes later with an ankle injury. Robbie Ingham moved into the No. 9 slot and Siri took his place on the wing. In the face of adversity the Dee sprang to life and a succession of drives through midfield by centre Karl Yellop took the home side to the opposing five-metre line and a scrum. With Yellop moving temporarily into No. 8 to cover for McCracken the Dee were then awarded a penalty – Ingham tapped and fed Yellop who crashed over the line to open Donaghadee’s account – Cooper adding the extras. Despite losing their influential No. 8 to a yellow card after he had dumped Yellop in mid-air the visitors struck back via successive driving mauls but were again turned over at key moments. On thirty seven minutes the Dee attacked from their own ten metre line and made good ground through midfield through Yellop and Matthew Stockton before the ball was moved wide to left wing Chris McGivern who cut in on an excellent line to evade the Mongahan defence and race in for the second try – again converted by Cooper. From the kick-off Yellop made a storming break through the middle and fed centre partner Stockton who outpaced the despairing visting defence to score under the posts, Cooper adding the extras. Two minutes later the whistle went for half-time and a golden twelve minute period had left Donaghadee leading by a 21-3 margin.

The second half opened with Monaghan having taken the conscious decision to rely on their well drilled pack to get them back into the game and their now ensued a period of pressure on the Dee defence with Kyle Morrow, Owen Roberts and Chesney to the fore in repelling the determined efforts of the visitors. On fifty two minutes however a succession of five-metre scrums on the Dee line were broken up with the home pack under pressure. On the third reset the referee lost patience and awarded Monaghan a penalty try bring the score back to 21-10 and all to play for. Three minutes later, however, the match defining incident occurred when Yellop again drove through midfield with quick ball recycled to reach Cooper who then delivered the sweetest of flat passes to Siri who ran from just outside his own twenty-two to outpace all before him and score the Dee’s bonus-point try and allow Cooper to take the score to 28-10 with the successful conversion. Two minutes however Donaghadee lost Roberts to a yellow card and Monaghan again pressed on all fronts but the rigid home defence would not be denied and their line was kept intact. Eventually the Dee began to take control and on the seventy four minute mark a succession of home attacks allowed full-back Danny McBride to cut a line inside the visitor’s drift defence to score wide out – for once, Cooper failing to add the extras. The visitors however refused to say die and were unfortunate to spill the ball in mid-attack deep in Donaghadee territory allowing the fleet-footed MGivern to gather the ball and sprint to the corner for an unconverted try. Deep into the injury time, and with the bit now firmly in their teeth, Donaghadee attacked a tiring Monaghan defence. Ingham gathered quick ball from a ruck and chipped high over the now ragged Monaghan defence for McBride to take on the full and run in for a superb final score of the day – Cooper regaining his poise to convert leaving the final score 45-10 in favour of the home side.

In what has been a very successful league season thus far Donaghadee have saved their best performances for the two league games against Monaghan and this win leaves the Donaldson Park side with a thirteen point lead over the Rafeenan men with thirteen games out of the scheduled twenty two played. An excellent display then from the seventeen Dee players and worthy of special mention are Cooper, skipper Stockton, Yellop, Siri, McGivern, Ingham and Morrow for splendid performances. This week’s Man of Match accolade however goes to the redoubtable Chris Hamilton whose performance at No. 7 was simply magnificent. On the ground, in the tackle, ball in hand Hamilton reigned supreme and displayed once again why he has been one of the stand-out back rows in Qualifying / Championship rugby over the last decade.

The 1st XV have no game next weekend but look forward to Saturday 12th January 2019 when the travel to Newforge for the return game against P.S.N.I. (2:30pm ko).