On Saturday Donaghadee 2nd XV travelled to Greenisland War Memorial Sports club to take on Belfast High School FP 2nd XV in their second league game of the season. Following their bonus point win against Larne the previous week, the dee saw the return of player/coach Garry Smith and Chris Scott into the pack. Scrum half, Paul Johnston made a welcome return after 18 months out with injury and Jonny Moore was back from working abroad.

The Dee started well with some solid carries up the middle from their pack, in particular Andy McCracken and Nathan Boyd. After a very cagey first 15-20 mins, with the dee playing into the wind, the deadlock was broken when an overlap was spotted on the right wing and a quick ball from Johnston was moved along the line, some fancy footwork by Owen Baillie and a nice offload to Joebe Basuel saw him crash over in the corner to make it 0v5. Unassisted by the wind the kick was missed by new Dee skipper Adam McGrath.
Credit to Belfast High School as they dug in for the remainder of the half with some big carries of their own and, helped by some lapses in concentration in defence by the Dee, saw them score 19 unanswered points before half time, their final score in the half coming after a turnover on their own try line and running the length of the field to score under the posts.

Coming out for the second half, following a stern talking to from First XV head coach Ray Dobson, the Dee knew they had to take the game by the scruff of the neck and battle hard to get themselves in front and come away with the win, and that’s exactly what they did! With the wind now at their backs and the line out functioning really well, the Dee looked to kick at every opportunity and pinned the opposition in their own half, challenging for every ball. Following a carry up the middle in the 55th minute the Dee managed to win a penalty for holding on at the ruck. McGrath looked to kick to the corner but his kick was short and was pushed back into play by the high school winger, only for Jonny Moore to pounce on the bouncing ball, scoop it up and run in to the corner for Dee’s second try. Another difficult kick for McGrath and his kick went just wide of the posts, score 19v10.

The Dee now had their tails up and more big carries followed from Chris Scott, Ewan McCracken and the veteran Ozzy Gordon. With high school looking to gain territory from a penalty and kicking into the Dee half, fullback Adam Russell collected the kick from inside his own half and jinked and weaved his way around the high school defence to run into the corner for the Dee’s 3rd try of the match, another difficult kick for McGrath, score 19v15. Another ruck penalty won by the Dee saw them kick to the corner inside the high school 22 and after a clean take from Nathan Boyd and a big carry up the middle from youngster Pete Donaldson, McGrath saw an overlap out wide and zipped his pass over 3 defenders to the oncoming Owen Baillie who went into the corner for the Dees bonus point try to lead by a single point.

The high school continued to try and press and get back in front but the Dees defence stood up well and after bundling the high school winger into the touch, the ref blew his whistle to signal the end of a very entertaining match.

Man of the match this week could have gone to a number of the Dee men such as Joebe Basuel, Andy McCracken or Chris Scott, but this week’s Man of the Match went to Adam Russell for his scintillating 50 plus meter score and some solid defence at 15, thwarting a number of the high school attacks.

A great start to the season for the Dee 2s who are now 2 from 2 and looking forward to a difficult home encounter next weekend at home to local rivals Ards 3s. Its sure to be a great day at Donaldson Park with the first XV also at home to Civil Service, both games kicking off at 2.30pm.