Donaghadee welcomed Holywood to a wet and windy Donaldson Park on Saturday looking to do the double over their neighbours after last week’s convincing away win.

Player coach Ray Dobson was back in the fold and Jack Chesney and Rory Wood were home for the festive season. Unfortunately, two players who have been in excellent form all season, Dylan Robinson and Ryan Butler, picked up injuries last week and were unavailable.

With the strong wind sweeping down the pitch the watching crowd knew it was going to be the proverbial game of two halves. The Dee were playing with the strong wind at their backs in the first half so they knew they would have to have a significant lead at half time if they to come out on top. Things started brightly for the Dee when they opened the scoring after only 5 minutes. After several phases of play the ball was spun wide and full-back Robbie Ingham went over in the corner. Five minutes later Holywood responded with a try of their own when their flanker broke through the Dee’s defensive line to score under the posts. The successful conversion gave the visitors a 7-5 lead.

Almost immediately the lead changed hands when Harry McCracken broke through and the ball was moved out to winger Aaron McKee who touched down in the right-hand corner. The difficult conversion was missed to leave the score 10-7.

For the next 15 minutes both teams had chances to score but the moist conditions were making handling difficult and this led to a plethora of scrums. With ten minutes of the half to go Dee found themselves deep in the Holywood 22 and after pummelling the line for several minutes it was McKee who eventually burrowed his way over. This time the try was converted to push the score to 17-7.

On the stroke of half time Dee scored their bonus point try. Ollie McCormac pounced on the loose ball as it shot out of a Holywood scrum and he was stopped just short of the line. The ball was then fed out to Jack Chesney and there was no way of stopping this powerhouse as he forced his way over to leave the halftime score 22-7 to the Dee.

As the wind strengthened in the second half the Dee knew they were in for a gruelling 40 minutes of hard work. The situation was exacerbated when they went down to 14 men when a Dee forward was sinbinned for a no arms tackle. However, a couple of minutes later the numbers were equalled when the Holywood centre was rightly shown a red card for an act of foul play that caused a Dee forward to leave the field for medical attention and take no further part in the game.

Holywood continued to take advantage of the conditions and on several occasions pinned the Dee deep in their own half. A couple of crucial turnovers by Sam Ingham helped to relieve the pressure and the Dee’s defence was well marshalled by the experienced Matthew Stockton. As the game entered the final quarter Holywood were reduced to thirteen when their prop was penalised for a croc roll at a ruck. Dee took advantage of this numerical disparity and went further ahead when McCracken cut back inside and popped the ball up to the supporting McCormac who ran in to score to increase the lead to 27-7.

To their credit Holywood kept pushing for a score and with 5 minutes to go were rewarded for their efforts when their prop managed to barge his way over. The difficult conversion was successful to bring the score to 27-14.

As the game drew to a close Holywood had one last effort when their prop went on a barnstorming run into the Dee half. From the next ruck the ball was spun wide but the Dee winger, Rory Wood, had anticipated the play, snapped up the interception and ran from his own half to score under the posts. The successful conversion was the last kick of the game to leave the final score 34-14 to the Dee.

Both teams should be commended for what was an entertaining game of rugby, especially in the difficult conditions. There was little debate over Man of the match this week and it goes to Sam Ingham who had an excellent game throughout and led from the front in both defence and attack.

A week off for Christmas and then a rearranged league game at Donaldson Park on 4th January against Inishowen, 2.30 k.o.