Donaghadee victorious in the North West

Match report by Geoff Ingham
Photo credit - Desmond Loughery

Donaghadee travelled to Rugby Avenue on Saturday to take on Coleraine in a Kukri Championship League game. With the hosts lying in second place and the Dee in third it promised to be a tightly contested encounter. The Dee welcomed back talisman Ray Dobson and Owen Roberts started in the second row. Last week’s match winner Ben Beattie moved into the centre with teenagers Adam Craig on the wing and Morgan Paulin at full back in only their second games for the 1st XV. The Dee started brightly, looking comfortable at scrum time and winning some good line out ball but failed to create any real opportunities to score. On the 10- minute mark a good move from the backs saw Robbie Ingham score in the corner only for the referee to inexplicably ignore his linesman and disallow the try for a foot in touch. This let off seemed to inspire Coleraine and for the next period they had the bulk of both territory and possession. This culminated in a series of attacks that saw the full back cross the line but a combination of Ben Beattie and Mark Cooper managed to stop him grounding the ball. After 25 minutes the Dee were awarded a penalty which Cooper kicked deep into the Coleraine 22. From the lineout the Dee executed an excellent driving maul which resulted in Paul Hamilton crashing over to open the scoring. Cooper missed the difficult conversion to leave the score at 5 -0 to the Dee. The remainder of the half was a scrappy affair with both sides guilty of handling errors and crooked throws which resulted in a plethora of scrums. The Dee attempted a kick at goal after being awarded a penalty but the effort flew wide of the upright. On the stroke of half time the Dee were penalised but the Coleraine out half also failed with his attempt to leave the Dee with a slender 5-0 lead at the break.

Almost immediately from the restart Coleraine had another penalty kick at goal after a series of errors from the Dee. This time the kicker made no mistake and cut the Dee’s lead to 2 points. This spurred the Dee into action and for the next 5 minutes played some good rugby, patiently putting several phases together which saw them advancing into the Coleraine 22. After Adam Alexander made good ground the Dee found themselves just in front of the Coleraine posts. From the ruck Ali Lockhart showed all of his experience by flicking the ball inside to the barnstorming Paul Hamilton who touched down for his and Dee’s second try of the day. Cooper converted to give the Dee a 12-3 lead. The next period of the match was a stop start affair with neither side gaining the upper hand. Coleraine converted a penalty on 51 minutes and another on the hour after Dee were harshly penalised in their 22. This made the score 12-9 to the Dee to set up a nervous final quarter. A good run from Adam Craig was stopped by a high tackle which saw the Coleraine second row spend the next ten minutes in the bin. The Dee were not able to capitalise on the numerical advantage. Although they had most of the possession they were not able to find the breakthrough to add to their points tally. With 2 minutes left the Dee were awarded a penalty in a kickable position but Cooper’s attempt hit the upright and into the arms of Coleraine who immediately launched a final attack. This was looking dangerous for the Dee until Sam Ingham won a penalty for a crucial turnover. Cooper decided to have a kick at goal and was successful with what proved to be the final kick of the game as the ref blew for full time with the score at 15-9 to the Dee.

Another good all-round performance from the men in red and green with the man of the match award shared between Adam Alexander, who had another fine game in the centre, and hooker Paul Hamilton for his brace of tries and overall performance in the pack. Dee have a week off before entertaining league leaders Limavady on the 26th March at Donaldson Park, KO 2.30pm, in their last home game of the season.