Match report by Geoff Ingham

Dee took to the pitch on Saturday knowing that a win against Strabane would see them confirmed as winners of the Kukri Championship 3. There were several changes this week with Jamie Wilson and Stephen Adams included in a strong pack and scrum-half Matthew Mingout replacing the unavailable Paul Johnston. Full-back Chris Knox was also unavailable which allowed young Stuart Martin to make his 1st XV debut. Strabane kicked off with the match ball, which was sponsored by Hugh Ritchie & Sons, and for the first ten minutes of the game the Dee struggled to get their hands on it. However, due to their well organised defence they managed to keep Strabane scoreless and eventually started to make inroads into Strabane’s half. On the twelve-minute mark a well worked lineout allowed the ball to be moved wide and centre Matthew Stockton made good ground before executing an excellent switch with winger Robbie Ingham who then showed his pace to beat the Strabane defence and touch down under the posts. Karl Yellop converted to give the Dee a 7-0 lead. The Dee continued to pressurise the young Strabane team and only five minutes later the forwards disrupted a Strabane scrum close to their line and No 8 Sam Ingham pounced on the loose ball and forced his way over in the corner. The difficult kick was missed to leave the score at 12-0. The Dee were dominating the game now and their third try came just before the half-hour mark when prop Wilson crashed through the Strabane centres and then passed to Matthew Stockton who scampered under the posts, leaving Yellop with the easiest of conversions. The bonus point try followed five minutes later when good drives from forwards Chris Hamilton and Wilson allowed the backs the space to run and the ball was spun out to Ingham who went over for his second try of the day. The half came to a close after the Dee registered try number five. Out-half Mark Cooper put a clever kick deep into the Strabane half and the evergreen Hamilton beat the Strabane full-back in the chase for the ball and then passed to winger Chris McGivern who ran through to score. Yellop was successful with the conversion leaving the half-time score 31-0 to the Dee.
Dee continued to play impressive rugby in the second half and treated their spectators to a plethora of tries. The first one came from a scrum inside the Strabane 22 when Sam Ingham picked up and fed Yellop, who ran in like a charging bull to crash over the line and then converted his own score. The next try was a well-executed rolling maul from the forwards which saw Hamilton emerge with the ball after the referee had signalled for the try. This time Yellop narrowly missed the conversion. Strabane were visibly tiring at this stage and a training ground move from the backs created a huge gap which McGivern gleefully galloped through to score his second try, which Yellop converted. The final try of the day was scored by Sam Ingham who ran a great line off a ruck and then side stepped the full-back and touched down to register his brace. Yellop converted to take the score to 57-0 before the referee brought the game to a slightly premature end. This was a much-improved performance than last week but there is still room for improvement and much work to be done at training this week before Saturday’s encounter with Monaghan at the Kingspan in the Gordon West Cup Final. There were several individuals who put in excellent performances, not least Stuart Martin who had an impressive debut, but the man-of-the-match award this week goes to coach Paul Blewitt and his coaching team who have done an excellent job this year guiding the team to the top of the Kukri Championship 3.