The Dee welcomed Virginia to Donaldson Park on Saturday for an important Championship 3 League encounter. With Larne sitting unbeaten at the top of the table both teams, along with Strabane, are fighting to finish in the promotion play-off position so every point is crucial. Virginia were victorious in the corresponding fixture earlier in the season in Co Cavan but the Dee were determined to try and maintain their run of being unbeaten at home this season.

The Dee’s line up only showed one change in the forwards with Daniel Ondswedder starting in the back row. Paul Johnston started in the centre alongside captain Matthew Stockton, Danny McBride took up the wing position, allowing Robbie Ingham to fill the fullback berth. Ray Dobson, Bryn McCartney and Davy Kirkpatrick made up a strong looking bench.

With only a slight breeze the conditions were ideal for rugby albeit a cold day for the watching crowd. The Dee started brightly and after only 8 minutes scored their opening try. Matthew Pentland broke the defensive line and passed to Harry McCracken who sucked in a couple of defenders before Danny McBride forced his way over in the corner. The difficult conversion was missed to leave the score 5-0.

The Dee continued to search for a further score but on a couple of occasions gave away penalties that allowed Virginia to relieve the pressure. However, in the 24th minute a quick penalty saw veteran Davy Skipp make good ground before being stopped just short of the line. The ball was quickly recycled and McCracken gave McBride the simplest of run ins to score his, and the Dee’s, second try to double the lead.

At this stage Virginia were seeing much more of the ball and Dee’s defence was tested on several occasions but stood firm. A couple of critical turnovers by Sam Ingham and Ray Dobson after great chop tackles by Daniel Ondswedder helped the defensive cause.

Virginia’s efforts were not helped when their centre was shown a yellow card for some backchat. On the stroke of half time Dee extended their lead when Virginia were penalised for a high tackle inside their 22. Rudi Ioasa took a quick tap and from the next ruck Ray Dobson scored one of his trademark tries by bursting through a couple of tackles to touch down. This time Pentland was successful with the conversion to leave the half time score 17-0 to the Dee.

Early in the second half the Dee went further ahead when Stockton took a short penalty and forced his way over, despite the attention of several Virginia defenders. Pentland slotted the conversion to give the Dee a 24-0 lead.

Virginia were now playing only for pride but upped their game and were soon hammering away at the Dee’s line. After conceding several penalties a Dee forward was sin binned and Virginia immediately took advantage of their numerical advantage, creating an overlap in the backline which allowed their centre to go over in the corner.

The last quarter of the match was evenly contested. In attack the Dee backs looked sharp and created several scoring opportunities whilst in defence they looked well organised and quickly nullified anything that Virginia had to offer. In the final minutes of the game Virginia lost a man to the sin bin after a dangerous tackle and from the resulting penalty it was Nathan Boyd who crashed over to score Dee’s final try. The conversion attempt was missed and the referee blew for full time to leave the final score 29-5 to the Dee.

So the Dee bag the 5 points which leaves them lying second in the league table with six matches still to go. This was an excellent team effort although there is still plenty to work on in training as the team continue their preparations for the Gordon West Cup Final on the 15th March.

There were plenty of contenders for man of the match. In the forwards it was Daniel Ondswedder and Owen Roberts and in the backs the captain Matthew Stockton led from the front as usual. However this week’s award goes to Paul Johnston who had an excellent game throughout.

The Dee travel to Greenisland next week to take on BHSFP, k.o 2.30pm.