ULSTER RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 3
LARNE 32
DONAGHADEE 5
By Geoff Ingham
DONAGHADEE were unable to make it two league wins from two to start the new campaign as they went down to Larne in their second Championship 3 encounter of the season.
The Dee’s starting 15 was unchanged from their win last week with Ollie McCormac being the only change on the replacements bench.
A heavy shower before kick-off had left the surface moist and as the Dee kicked off against a stiff breeze, Larne got on the scoresheet almost immediately when the visitors were penalised for not rolling away at a ruck. The Larne kicker was successful with the kick to give them a 3-0 lead.
That was then doubled after six minutes when Donaghadee were caught offside and another kick sailed through the posts. The Dee then saw some possession but some poor handling on a couple of occasions put an end to any scoring opportunities.
Larne were taking advantage of the breeze and pinned the Dee back into their 22 several times. An excellent tackle by Robbie Ingham denied Larne a try and good work by Davy Skipp and Sam Ingham managed to hold the hosts up over the line.
Larne had two more attempts at goal from further misdemeanours from the Dee, but the first one hit the upright and the second one was pushed wide. In the last 10 minutes of the half Donaghadee lost captain Matthew Stockton due to injury and had to rejig their backline. Larne capitalised on this disruption by scoring two tries in as many minutes which were both converted by their excellent place kicker to give them a 20-point lead.
In the final minute of the half the Dee made their way up field and after several drives by the forwards the ball went wide and Harry McCracken crossed to score. The difficult conversion was missed to leave the half-time score 20-5 in Larne’s favour.
The breeze had strengthened as the second half began and the Dee saw more of the ball but were not able to create many chances due to a combination of Larne’s good defence and their own sloppiness in attack.
On the few occasions they got close to Larne’s line the lack of precision allowed the home side to thwart their efforts. As the half drew to a close the big Larne ball carriers were making in-roads into the Dee’s half and their confident backline managed to cross the line in the 78th and 81st minutes to earn themselves a bonus point and leave a Dee team licking their wounds.
A performance to forget for the Dee this week, who will have to work hard on the training pitch to ensure a better outcome on Saturday (September 21) when they entertain Newry in the first round of the Gordon West Cup at 2.30pm.
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