Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee travelled to Tyrone on Saturday to kick off the season with a conference league match against Omagh 2s. The team selected had an unfamiliar look about it because of the number of players unavailable due to a combination of work commitments, holidays and injuries. However, this enabled coaches Paul Blewitt and Chris Good to give 1st fifteen debuts to Rhys Brown, Cameron Malcolm, Ben Stevenson and the evergreen Davy Scott. Due to the heavy overnight rain the pitch was moist underfoot, however, the whole game was played in almost perfect conditions under a clear blue sky. The Dee kicked off playing down the slope, with the slight breeze at their backs and immediately took the game to Omagh. Some good driving by the forwards and a couple of breaks by Ben Siri and Matthew Stockton took play into the opposition’s half and, from a penalty, out-half Danny McBride found touch deep inside Omagh’s 22. Unfortunately, Omagh stole the lineout and the opportunity was lost. For the next 20 minutes the Dee continued to play some good rugby, with forwards Rhys Brown, Sam Ingham and Chris Hamilton driving hard and the likes of Cameron Malcolm, Chris McGivern and Robbie Ingham solid in defence. It was only some early season rustiness, including a knock-on and losing the ball in the tackle, that prevented the Dee getting on the scoresheet. After a scoreless 30 minutes it was Omagh who registered the first score. Dee conceded a penalty in their own half and Omagh opted to kick to touch. From the resulting lineout the Omagh pack set up a rolling maul and forced their way over in the corner. The conversion was missed to leave the score at 5-0 and it remained so for the rest of the first half.

Dee put themselves under pressure immediately in the second half when they failed to deal with the kick off, giving Omagh a line-out in the Dee’s 22 and after several phases of play the Omagh No8 crashed over to score their second unconverted try. This disappointment seemed to stir the Dee into action and they had several promising passages of play. One of these saw McGivern make good ground up the left wing until he was high tackled and the referee had no hesitation showing the Omagh player a yellow card. Dee pushed hard to profit from this numerical advantage and in the 55th minute a solid scrum allowed them to make a good break down the blindside. From the next ruck they went blind again and Hamilton managed to slip the final pass to Davy Kirkpatrick who beat his opposing winger to score. McBride was successful with the conversion to make the score 10-7 and put the Dee back into the game. As the game entered the final quarter the Omagh forwards pressurised the Dee line but stout defence kept them at bay. This forced the Omagh out-half to opt for a speculative cross-field kick which, unfortunately, was misjudged by the Dee defence and allowed the Omagh wing an easy touchdown. The conversion was missed to leave the score at 15-7. Dee continued to stick to their task and in the last 10 minutes managed to put several good phases of play together, with second row Ewan McCracken showing all his ball carrying abilities. However, it was Omagh who had the final say with probably the best try of the day with a move that included several great offloads. The kick was missed to leave the final score 20-7 to Omagh.

Although this was a defeat for the Dee this was an encouraging start with certainly more positives than negatives. There is plenty of work to be done in training, particularly on the set-piece but the attitude and effort of the team could not be questioned. There were several contenders for the man-of-the-match including Matthew Stockton Chris McGivern and an impressive debut from Cameron Malcolm. However, this week the award goes to young Rhys Brown who carried hard all match, scrummaged well and showed great ball handling skills throughout his first fifteen debut.