Match Report by Geoff Ingham
Photo Credit - Wesley Martin (please see https://www.facebook.com/media/set?set=oa.1166307354908041&type=3 for more of Wesley's photos

The Dee travelled to Greenisland on Saturday for a Championship 3 League game against BHSFP. Ali Lockhart made a welcome return at scrumhalf after a long injury lay off. Dylan Robinson also returned after breaking his arm in December to take his seat on the bench. However, the Dee were without Sam Ingham and Nathan Boyd who both sustained injuries in last week’s match. With Lockhart at 9 Matthew Pentland moved to fullback with the versatile Robbie Ingham starting on the wing.

With the BHSFP main pitch still unavailable the match was played on the narrower second pitch which was not conducive to free-flowing rugby. The Dee saw plenty of possession in the first quarter and made several trips into the opposition’s 22. However, they were not able to convert any of these opportunities, mainly due to their lack of precision at crucial moments, and also due to BHSFP winning several turnovers close to their line. In fact, it was the High School who broke the deadlock in the 24th minute when, rather uncharacteristically, Dee missed a couple of tackles which allowed the winger to score in the corner to give the home team a 5-0 lead.

The rest of the half continued to be a scrappy affair with the hottest thing on the pitch being the referee’s whistle.

After a stern talking to at the break the Dee knew they would have to up their game if they were to come away with a win. However, almost immediately the half started the Dee were penalised for a high tackle and the BHSFP kicker calmly slotted the ball between the uprights to increase the lead to 8-0. This stirred the Dee into action and suddenly things began to click. With the lineouts functioning much better it gave the backs more opportunity to attack and the Dee soon found themselves encamped inside the BHSFP 22. In the 50th minute, after a succession of penalties it was Ray Dobson who crashed over to score. The conversion was missed but the deficit was now only 3 points.

Five minutes later the lead changed hands when Ryan Butler broke away from a ruck and selflessly popped the ball to Aaron McKee who ran in under the posts. Pentland converted to make the score 12-8 to the Dee. BHSFP pulled back three points a couple of minutes later when they converted a penalty when the Dee infringed at a ruck.

Dee were then back on the attack and the home side were reduced to 14 men when a forward was sent to the bin for collapsing a maul. A tapped penalty saw Lockhart force his way over to touch down but the referee was unsighted and was unable to award the try. Minutes later the Dee did score when Matthew Stockton barged his way over. Pentland was again successful with the conversion to push the score to 19-11.

Both teams then saw yellow after a slight altercation off the ball. As the clock ticked by the Dee went searching for the bonus point try and with five minutes to go they found it. The ball was fed out to Robbie Ingham on the wing who made ground before kicking the ball over the head of the last defender. Man of the match Daniel Ondswedder followed up and skilfully volleyed the ball towards the line then gathered it and dived over to score. The conversion was missed to leave the final score 24-11 to the Dee.

A much better performance in the second half by the Dee but lessons to be learnt and much to work on in training. Next week the Dee are at home against the PSNI, k.o. 2.30 pm