This week with Chris Hamilton added to the missing list due to a throat infection, Gareth Deering succumbing to a season ending injury and most of those who were unavailable through injury & illness last week remaining on that ever increasing roster the Dee once again faced an enormous challenge against a Larne side who had surprised most onlookers this season with a strong showing in their first year back in Q2 after winning promotion from Q3 last term. The home pack, in particular, had a most unfamiliar look about it but, on the plus side, the Easter holidays allowed players such as Adam Alexander, Matthew Stockton and Ryan Irvine to return.

From the outset the Dee side’s unfamiliarity with each other was evident and after only three minutes play the Larne out-half waltzed through a gaping hole in the home defence for an unconverted try. The Dee now pressed at the Newtownards end of the pitch and won a penalty with Mark Cooper narrowly missing the ensuing kick at goal. Larne broke downfield once again and an outrageously forward reverse pass from their impressive scrum-half McGonigle led to a second try. This eventuality had a clearly dispiriting effect on the Dee side and five minutes later McGonigle repeated the dose allowing Larne to capitalise on the change of direction to score their third try with twenty minutes played. Donaghadee now fell into the trap of trying to play “catch-up” rugby much too early in the game and Larne profited from some marginal errors and decisions to allow them to extend their lead to a fairly unassailable 29-0 half-time lead.

In the second-half the home side regrouped and had most of the play with Alexander, Stockton and Paul Hamilton to the fore – unfortunately most of the creativity was occurring in the Dee’s own half and Larne defended extremely well in keeping Donaghadee away from the visiting “red zone”. On sixty eight minutes the Dee attacked purposefully from first and second phase play close to the opposing twenty two and an inside ball found right-wing John Quigg whose strong running broke the home defensive line for him to score to the left of the posts – Paul Blewitt adding the extras. This score stung the Dee back into life and the last ten minutes of the game was spent pressing the Larne defence with Hamilton and Matthew Martin prominent in the pick & drive. On a couple of occasions the strong-running Alexander nearly broke through but firm defence from Larne prevented any lasting danger – employing the choke-tackle tactic which had served them well all afternoon. With time up the Dee commenced one final assault on the line with Hamilton carrying to good effect on numerous occasions before he himself barged over the line to score. The Dee then had “won” the second half 12-0 but, unfortunately, there are two halves in a game and the disjointed home performance in the first-half had left them much too much to do in the second! For Donaghadee Hamilton, Stockton, Irvine and Alexander stood out but the frailties exhibited in the first half proved costly and the side will know that, even though they stood toe to toe with the opposition for much of the game, the ten minute period on the first half when they leaked three tries in quick succession proved to be their undoing.