Donaghadee 32 – 17 Ballyclare

Donaghadeee made three changes from the previous week, due to injuries Chris Beattie and Chris McGivernreplaced Marcus Gibson and Bobby Harpur in the backs while Richard Martindale made his first appearance of the season on the 1st XV in place of Phil Collins.

In near perfect conditions the early exchanges were fairly even and after 10 minutes Donaghadee opened the scoring with a penalty from Paul Blewitt. Play continued to be fairly evenly contested and after 28 minutes it was Ballyclare who made the breakthrough with a superb try by their Centre Gary Clotworthy who weaved his way through the Dee defence from 40 meters to score a try at the posts which he himself converted. Clotworthy added a further penalty for Clare after 30 minutes to extend their lead to 10-3. This prompted a period of intense pressure from the home side during which the visitors lost two players to the sin bin and eventually Dee number 8 Ian Martindale crashed over for a try which Blewitt converted to leave the scores level 10-10 at half time.

Now playing up the hill it was Donaghadee who created the early pressure and after a series of attacks inside the Clare 22 flanker Stuart Hutchinson scored a deserved try in the corner after good work by the Dee pack in particular Chris Schofield. The Dee continued to pressurise the opposition and two tries, a second for No. 8 Martindale and one from close range by Kyle Morrow extended the Dee lead to 27-10.

With a bonus point now secure Donaghadee may have relaxed slightly allowing Ballyclare to hit back with a well constructed try from far out which was finished off by their fullback after a good switch of direction in midfield. Clotworthy converted the try to reduce the Dee margin to ten points with 8 minutes remaining. Ballyclare were now striving for a losing bonus point but it was the Dee who finished stronger and after another period of pressure hooker Paul Hamilton crashed over for the final try which Blewitt was unable to convert leaving the final score 32-17.

Donaghadee Team : Bill Allen, Chris McGivern, Andrew Findlater, Chris Beattie, Rory Garnham, Paul Blewitt, Alastair Lockhart, Chris Schofield, Paul Hamilton, Chris Good (c), Kyle Morrow, Richard Martindale, Stuart Hutchinson, Chris Hamilton, Ian Martindale.