Having secured an away win against Cooke earlier in the season Donaghadee had an opportunity to complete the double against the South Belfast outfit on Saturday.
Donaghadee enjoyed the better of the early exchanges with both line-outs and scrums functioning well. The away side appeared to be rather slow out if the blocks and Donaghadee carved out the first scoring opportunity in the 12th minute when Chris Hamilton broke through the defence and offloaded to player-coach Stuart Hennessey who was stopped just short of the try line.
The momentum of the game however started to swing in Cooke’s favor midway through the first half as they enjoyed greater spells of possession but were however unable to create any clear scoring opportunities until the 32nd minute when a rare well executed line out was secured by the away side and enough momentum was created to drive over from close range. CLICK HERE for shots album, inlcudes new ones recieved today
Cooke continued to dominate open play after this try and a Donaghadee sin bin on the 35th minute appeared to give the home side a difficult period either side of half-time.
It was a crucial period but in which the team down to 14 men scored ten points prior to the break. It was club stalwart Paul Blewitt who spotted a gap in the Cooke defence and after a little show of the ball to his opposite number he needed no second invitation to go himself and touch down under the posts. Barker converted and a minute later kicked an excellent penalty to give the Dee a 10-5 half time lead.
Donaghadee buoyed on by their strong finish to the first half started the second period well with a great mix of determined effort from the pack and neat exchanges in midfield from Barker and Paul McKenzie.
Barker extended the home side’s lead on the 50th minute with an excellent effort from the far touch line.
The Dee’s eight point advantage was quickly reduced to a one point lead on the 58th minute with a superbly worked set play that resulted in the outside centre touching down after receiving a great inside ball that flatfooted the Dee defence. The conversion was successful.
Cooke were reduced to 14 men on the 60th minute and at a stage when the game was very finely balanced this ended up giving Dee an edge in the final quarter.
The experienced Blewitt was able to ease pressure on the Donaghadee line in the final stages with a couple of intelligent kicks from open play. The Dee side introduced David Thompson for the final quarter who offered fresh legs and a disciplined head to guide Donaghadee to their fifth successive league win.
Baker made sure of this with his second penalty of the match in the 78th minute.
Given the conditions both teams produced an excellent display of rugby with very little between both sides for long periods of the game. Donaghadee’s disciplined defence and clinical finishing will put them in a strong position for another top four finish.
Elsewhere the 2nd XV exited the Crawford Cup after challenging a strong Rainey OB III side in Magherafelt.
This incoming Saturday attention turns to the Towns Cup when the 1st XV travel to Ballyclare to take on the local side in the Second Round. This will be no easy task for the Dee men as Ballyclare are currently vying with Bangor for honours at the top of Qualifying 2 together with the fact that The Cloughan is traditionally a very hard place to come away from with a win for any visiting team. The Dee 2nd XV travel to Shaws Bridge for a league game against Instonians III whilst the 3rd XV entertain Grosvenor IV at Donaldson Park. All games kick off at 2:30pm.
Finally huge congratulations to the Regent House 1st XV who last Saturday overcame Rainey by 10-8 in the Schools Cup progressing to meet RBAI in the next round.
