Donaghadee 1st XV resumed their Kukri Championship 2 campaign with a trip to mid Antrim to face Randalstown. The home side were one of the leading lights in this league last season but had been misfiring this season. As has been the case in each league game this season the Dee took the field minus a significant number of key players with Chris Hamilton, Karl Yellop, Ben Siri and Paul Johnston all missing and Adam Alexander, Conor Fulton and Mark Cooper still on the long-term injury list. On the positive side skipper Matthew Stockton made a welcome return to the fray.

As has been a recurring issue this season the Dee started slowly and after Randalstown had taken an early 3-0 lead with the conversion of a penalty conceded in front of the post fell further behind when a ball was lost against the head at scrum time. The canny Randalstown pack twisted the scrum allowing enough space for their No 8 to squeeze over the line on the far right. On the quarter hour mark the home pack won a scrum on the Dee five metre line and drove their opponents back before their nippy scrum-half darted over to score in the far left-hand corner. The ensuing conversions from both these try scoring efforts were missed but Donaghadee were now 13 points behind with their first phase play at both scrum and lineout time successively letting them down which allowed them to make little impact when constructing any offensive plays. On the 27 minute mark the Dee were penalised on their ten metre line and the home scrum-half took the quick tap to release his openside flanker to outpace the despairing Dee defence to score wide out, the extras again not being converted. This spurred Donaghadee into action and successive driving ploys from Ray Hobson, Ewan McCracken & Ally Barnes made significant inroads on the home defence before a careless pass or lack of continuity meant the away side faltered. With a minute before the break on the clock McCracken was harshly penalised for not rolling away and Randalstown converted to leave the halftime score at 21-0.

For the first twenty minutes of the second period Dee skipper Stockton took the game by the scruff of the neck with his powerful drives from midfield spurring his side in attack. Well supported by the abrasive Stephen Adams, Sam Ingham and Dobson this ploy left the home side on back foot but ultimately their well organised defence held firm and they made their way back upfield on the 60 minute mark, won a five metre scrum and created space with the ensuing shunt to allow the scrumhalf to release his left winger to score. With the extras added this brought the score to 28-0 in favour of Randalstown. At this point the Dee’s heads could well have gone down but led by Stockton they again took the game to Randalstown with Matthew Mingout keeping the continuity going Jack Chesney & Owen Roberts were carrying well deep into opposition territory. With the ball coming loose in open play Adams pounced and swapped passes with Stockton prior to Randalstown being penalised for killing the ball. The ever alert Stockton took a quick tap and crossed the line virtually unopposed for the Dee’s first points of the day – the extras being added by Danny McBride. Five minutes later the improving Dee scrum allowed Ingham to pick-up and after a clever interchange of passes left-wing Andrew Wright forced his way over in the corner for an unconverted try. Donaghadee continued to attack but the stern home defence closed down any further opportunities and the game finished with the score at 28-12 in Randalstown’s favour.

Ultimately this was disappointing performance from the Dee side that, once again, paid the opposition much too much respect at various points throughout the game. In addition the lack of quality ball from first phase play, especially during the first quarter of the game, proved extremely costly. Donaghadee “won” the second half by 12-7 but sadly there are 80 minutes in a game, not 40! On the plus side there were a number of encouraging performances not least from Chris McGivern who clearly was carrying an injury throughout most of the second period and Robbie Ingham who dealt well with the unfamiliar full-back position. A few people come into contention for Man of the Match, most notably Adams, but head and shoulders above everyone else was talismanic skipper Stockton whose energy and leadership almost single-handedly brought his side back into the game.