The Dee welcomed Larne to Donaldson Park on Saturday for their last home game of the season. The visitors have remained unbeaten all season and a win was going to guarantee them topping the table with a game to spare. Dee, on the other hand, were probably suffering a cup final hangover after their efforts last week at the Kingspan.

With several key players unavailable the Dee’s line up had a different look about it. Phil Collins started at prop in his first game of the season and Bryn McCartney filled in at hooker. Nathan Boyd dropped from the second row into the back row and was joined by Daniel Ontswedder at No.8.

There were changes in the backline too, Paul Johnston moved to scrum half whilst Davey Kirkpatrick and Robbie Ingham formed the centre partnership. The back three was made up of Aaron McKee, Morgan Paulin and Matthew Pentland.

Young Fraser Fulton, making his 1st XV debut for the Dee, started on the bench along with Ollie McCormac and a very sore Ray Dobson.

A proud Ryan Butler led the Dee team out for his first taste of captaincy. Due to the overnight rain the surface of the pitch was moist although thankfully it stayed dry throughout the game. The Dee started the half well and were able to put several good phases of play together including an excellent burst up the middle of the field by Dylan Robinson and a couple of dangerous runs up the right wing by Morgan Paulin.

Whenever Larne had possession the Dee defence tackled ferociously, a couple of big hits by Sam Moore gaining the approval of the watching crowd. The league leaders eventually got on the scoreboard after 15 minutes when they kicked a penalty to touch deep inside the Dee 22.

After several phases it was their scrum half who managed to evade the Dee tacklers and scored under the posts to leave an easy conversion. 10 minutes later the Dee were penalised just outside the 22 and Larne opted for a kick at goal which was successfully slotted over to give them a 10-0 lead. For the remainder of the half Dee’s defence held out and they also created a couple of good scoring opportunities themselves but, unfortunately, were not able to convert them into points.

A combination of Larne stepping up their game and the Dee’s concentration waning meant that after 15 minutes of the second half the game was effectively over as the visitors notched up a further 21 points by scoring three converted tries. The Dee supporters were concerned that the floodgates would open but to their credit the Dee rallied and probably enjoyed their best period of the match. Paul Johnston and Harry McCracken were causing problems for the opposition and it was the latter crossed the whitewash halfway through the half when he glided through a gap in the Larne defence and outpaced the last defender to score. Pentland converted to make the score 31-7.

Larne responded almost immediately when a mix-up in the Dee 22 allowed their flanker to go under the posts. Fulton was introduced at this stage and certainly did not look out of place for the remaining quarter of the game.

The Dee competed well against this strong Larne team and only conceded one more try in the dying minutes to leave the final score 45-7.

This was a spirited Dee display against strong opposition and there were certainly more positives than negatives to be had. Paul Johnston, Dylan Robinson and Daniel Ontswedder were all contenders for man-of-the-match but the award this week goes to Ryan Butler who led from example in both defence and attack and was unlucky not to be awarded his first try.

The Dee complete their league campaign next week when they travel to Newry. K.o. 2.30pm