Match report by Geoff Ingham

Donaghadee welcomed Larne to Donaldson Park on Saturday for a Kukri Championship League game. As usual this season the team sheet showed several changes from last week’s game. Davy Skipp moved across the front row to prop with Paul Hamilton slotting in at hooker. Owen Roberts came into the second row and Garry Smith made his debut for the 1st XV at blindside. In the backline both Ben Siri and Chris McGivern made a welcome return from injury and Johnny Bell played his first game for the 1st XV this year at fullback. Before the game both teams and supporters observed a minute’s silence in memory of Terry Smyth and Nigel Hamilton. The gale force wind had, thankfully, subsided slightly but was still going to be an influence on the game as it swept strongly across the pitch. For the first few minutes it was the Dee who had to defend as Larne made inroads into the Dee half. In the fifth minute the Dee managed a turnover and quickly ran the ball from inside their half. Adam Alexander beat his defender and drew the fullback before slipping the ball to Ben Siri who ran in to score an unconverted try to put the Dee 5-0 to the good. A few minutes later it was the forwards turn as Sam Ingham burst through the Larne defence and offloaded to Ray Dobson who galloped down the field to score under the posts. Mark Cooper converted and the lead was now 12-0. The next twenty minutes was played in the middle of the field with both teams enjoying spells of possession. Dee’s defence was solid throughout with the back three of Bell, Siri and Robbie Ingham comfortably fielding Larne’s kicks despite the difficult conditions. In attack, good drives by the pack saw the Dee make plenty of ground with the likes of Callum Montgomery and Paul Hamilton to the fore. On the half hour mark Dee had a line out just inside the Larne 22 and after a clean take they set up an excellent driving maul which went all the way to the line, allowing Davy Skipp to touch down. Dee finished the half by scoring their bonus point try when, after several phases of play, Sam Ingham picked up a pass off his toes and crashed over to score. Cooper converted to leave the half -time score 24 -0 to the Dee.

If the Dee support thought they would see a plethora of tries in the second half they were to be disappointed. To Larne’s credit they upped their game and for the first twenty minutes of the half had most of the possession and tested the Dee defence on several occasions. However, the defence remained resolute throughout with some big hits going in from Dobson and Chris Hamilton and gritty work by Owen Roberts and Garry Smith keeping Larne at bay. Dobson and Sam Ingham were replaced by young Dylan Robinson and Johnny Gamble and both players certainly did not look out of place. Eventually the momentum shifted back to the Dee and in the last twenty minutes of the game they ran in three more tries. The first saw Chris Hamilton force his way over in the corner after some good ground was made by Siri and McGivern. Then it was Adam Alexander’s turn as he broke through a few despairing tackles to score an excellent try. Finally, on the stroke of full time Davy Skipp, who had another excellent game, crashed over for his second try of the day which Cooper converted to make the final score 41-0.

Overall, a much-improved performance from the Dee with lots of contenders for man of the match, however, this week it goes to Garry Smith who had an excellent debut for the club.

The Dee’s next game is a conference league fixture away to Malone 2’s on 11th December.