Donaghadee 1st XV travelled to CIYMS last Saturday to fulfil a Kukri Qualifying One fixture against the strong Belmont side more in hope than expectation given that the Dee men were missing seven regulars (including the entire usual starting front five) due to a bizarre combination of of unavailability and injury. Two eighteen year olds made their 1st XV debuts in the pack leaving the Dee eight with an average age of just over 20 - surely the youngest forward unit to represent the Club first team in many, many years.

CIYMS started extremely strongly with their much heavier and more experienced pack exerting their authority in the early stages. Their scrummage was causing the Dee pack problems and the visiting line out was suffering a little from lack of familiarity with each other.

CI opened up a ten point gap fairly quickly with two unconverted tries via a thrusting run from their full back Robin Brown on the back of a rolling maul and then from a pushover scrum after a disputed carry over from a Dee chase back. At this point the large Dee travelling support was somewhat downcast with the best they could hope for a damage limitation exercise. The seeds for what was to come were being sown however with the young Dee pack strong in both ruck confrontations and phase continuity together with the expert foraging of the back row of Max Montgomery, David Murray and Chris Hamilton. Allied to this was the half back threat of Player Coach Paul McKenzie and Captain Ally Lockhart who raised the pulses of both the home and visiting support whenever they had the ball.

The Dee held CI to 10-0 at half time and the sideline sages were postulating that the only manner the score could be kept down would be to use the sagging sun which was sinking back the Dee's left shoulders. McKenzie and Lockhart had other ideas however and decided that the Dee would run the much heavier CIYMS around the paddock. Before long this tactic had the heretofore confident Belmont side puffing somewhat and after a series of forays involving the entire Dee back five of Mark Cooper, Ryan Irvine, Nigel Barker, Andy Findlater and Rory Garnham the latter went over in the far right hand corner with Barker just missing the difficult touch line kick. Elation turned to despair for the Dee support five minutes later when the iconic Dee 7 Hamilton had to leave the field after a knock. They had reckoned without the entry to the field of play of the vastly experienced Pete Stevenson however - he of the metronomic work rate and ability to get amongst the opposition. From pressure initiated by the fiery Stevenson the Dee garnered a turnover and moved the ball quickly to No. 10 McKenzie who threw a dummy pass before coasting through the despairing CI defence to score the sweetest of tries halfway between the posts and the touch line. Barker added the extras to leave the Dee leading by 12-10.... could they hold on against the tiring Belmont men?

Intiatially the thought was - yes, they could - as another barnstorming attack from the Dee men ended with Findlater being held up over the opposition line. CIYMS then gained a relieving penalty and skipper Stuart Ferguson took the bull by the horns and orchestrated his charges in a series of rolling mauls which the Dee defended stoutly before conceding a penalty to the left of the posts which Brown converted comfortably. CI were now back in the lead by a point. Donaghadee's influential tight head Ally Barnes then had to leave the field at this point and was replaced by the re-invented Phil Collins who added his not inconsiderable presence to the forward proceedings. The Dee continued to attack from all available aspects of play but from one of these CI gained a fortunate turnover on half way but carried it on expertly to put their left wing in in the far left hand corner for a try - conversion missed, 18-12 to the home side. With time running out the Dee pack still harried away with locks Michael Blair & Stephen Adams together with fellow debutant - hooker Morgan Ellis - and the ever improving Adam Torrans particularly prominent. Play changed hands at an ever increasing rate before McKenzie adopted the pragmatic approach and dotted the ball into touch to copper fasten a losing bonus point for the visitors and deny the home side the opportunity of scoring one.

An outstanding performance then from the Dee "young men" and a bonus point scant reward for their efforts on a day when maybe foundations for a new generation of Dee men were laid. Stand out efforts from all seventeen lads then but perhaps special mention for No. 8 Montgomery who really made his presence felt in the face of much older and experienced opponents. Finally very strong support from the off field team in the cauldron of what is a Q1 game at Belmont - many thanks due to Peter Matthews, Niall Moraghan, John West and Philip Ellis - super job boys!

Team 1-15:
A.Torrans M.Ellis A.Barnes S.Adams M.Blair D.Murray C.Hamilton M.Montgomery
A.Lockhart P.McKenzie R.Irvine A.Finlater N.Barker R.Garnham M.Cooper
Subs: P.Stevenson P.Collins