Donaghadee welcomed near-neighbours Holywood to Donaldson Park for this keenly awaited derby encounter. Prior to the game seventy five people assembled for lunch in the Clubhouse and the Club were delighted to entertain old Holywood friends such as Alvin Patterson, Billy McCormick and Richard Patterson. On-field the Dee were without skipper Matthew Stockton, Ben Siri, Paul Johnston and Chris McGivern but were buoyed by the return of Stephen Adams and Sam Ingham. Coaches Paul Blewitt and Chris Good also took the opportunity to rotate a few of their squad with Davy Kirkpatrick, Jamie Wilson and Morgan McCartney coming back into the match-day seventeen.

Donaghadee started strongly and after ten minutes play lineout possession inside the opposition twenty-two resulted in a driving maul which skipper Chris Hamilton controlled at the back and duly drooped down to score over the line, Mark Cooper adding the conversion. This relatively early score stung the Holywood men into action and they drew level ten minutes later when, after a series of strong drives in the Dee twenty-two they were able to place the ball at the base of the post for a deserved equalising score. At this point neither side was gaining dominance but on the quarter mark Cooper threw a superb mis-pass to left-wing Chris Knox who flew in to score an unconverted try in the corner. The try remained unconverted to leave the Dee 12-7 ahead. A couple of minutes later Donaghadee lost full-back Danny McBride when an unfortunate clash of heads with Hamilton as both went to claim a kick into the twenty-two by Holywood resulting in the speedy No. 15 having to leave the field. The Dee reorganised with Jonny Gamble moving from hooker to the wing, Knox to full-back and McCartney coming off the bench into the front-row. The Dee continued to press and on the half-hour mark centre Karl Yellop nudged a grubber kick through the Holywood midfield and Knox followed up to gather and score another unconverted try. Try as they might though, the Dee could not put Holywood away and for minutes later they brought the differential back to three points when they scored from a quick tap in the home side’s twenty-two after a penalty had been awarded for a high tackle. Such was the nature of the game Donaghadee were quickly on the scoreboard again in first-half injury time when an intricate back move resulted in right-wing Robbie Ingham creating the extra man out left to score a beautiful bonus-point try in the corner. The extras were not taken and so the half-time score was 22-14 in the home side’s favour.

The Dee scrum began the second half in much the same manner as the first and their domination in this area allowed them a strike against the head just beyond the opposition ten metre line after fifty minutes. Scrum-half Matthew Mingout swiftly move the ball to the blindside where Cooper darted through the Holywood defence to outpace all would-be tacklers and score an unconverted try out wide. Such was the see-saw nature of the game however that Holywood struck back after a further five minutes play when an array of superb inter passing moves saw them break the somewhat fragile Dee defence to bring the score back to 27-19. With the smell of blood their nostrils Holywood put the Dee under sustained pressure but from another superb scrum in their own twenty-two Sam Ingham broke from No. 8, Mingout fed Yellop from the ensuing ruck and powerful centre barged through the Holywood defence before outpacing the despairing visiting defence to score under the posts, Cooper adding the extras. It was now the turn of the Dee to have their tails in the air and on seventy minutes Sam Ingham picked up from a driving scrum on the Holywood five-metre line and crashed over. Cooper conversion was successful and brought the score to 41-19. The Donaghadee faithful on the sideline assumed this was game over but the dogged visitors had other ideas and a series of broken tackles allowed them to score a well-deserved try to bring the score back to 41-24. Two minutes into injury time Holywood further added to their tally when a succession of quick tap penalties (during which the Dee suffered a yellow card) brought them just reward and the game finished with a scoreline of 41-31 in favour of Donaghadee.

A very entertaining game but the Dee coaching staff will have been more than a little perturbed by a weak defensive performance in the second half and will look to set this to rights on the training paddock this week prior to the visit to Stormont for the return league game against Civil Service next Saturday. There would be a case for awarding Man of the Match this week to the front row of Wilson, Gamble/McCartney and Good. Their dominance at scrum-time was probably the deciding factor in this game. The award however goes to Robbie Ingham whose efforts in both attack and (especially) defence was indicative of the giant strides this young man has made this season.