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North Down Cup Final: Donaghadee 13 - 20 Bangor (29/08/00)

"BANGOR WIN NORTH DOWN CUP

The ease with which this Bangor team saw off Ards last week in the semi-final of the North Down Cup competition suggested that as an All-Ireland Senior Three team they were clear favourites to win the final against Qualifying Two side, Donaghadee.

The opening skirmishes were soon telling a different story.  Right from the kick-off it was the men in red and green who looked the better side, taking their neighbours on in both the forward exchanges and out in the open spaces.  The game was only two minutes old when Donaghadee put together a series of penetrating attacks which had them close to the Bangor line three times before Simon Crowe was able to outdistance the already ragged defence to score a fine try half way out on the left.  Andy Monson's conversion made this a well-deserved 7-0 lead to the Dee.

Another great run by Crowe put Donaghadee in close enough proximity that when the over-eager Bangor defence strayed off-side it gave Monson another chance to increase the score - which he did.

At this point Bangor were able to make a crucial substitution and bring on Stephen McKinty.  Instantly this demonstrated just how good a player this European Cup winner is, and how much he means to his club.  His clean possession in line-outs, and his running took Bangor to a scrum close to the Dee line, where Bangor won the ball, and yes, McKinty picked it up and went over for a superb individual try.

There followed a short period of rugby-tennis which concluded with another penalty conversion from Monson to put Donaghadee into a 13-5 lead.  Soon after the re-start Aaron Martin picked up at the back of a scrum well inside his own half and when checked, found scrum-half Craig Simmonds in close support.  This pair seem to have discovered an almost uncanny understanding very quickly, and this time Craig was able to carve a fifty metre run which was only ended short of the Bangor line by an urgent covering tackle.

This was to be Donaghadee's last real chance to score points in the game.  Matt Turner made a cool run out of defence and gave Ian Welch the chance to show his pace until he was dispossessed at the half-way line, but the half was over before any advantage could be taken from this.

The second half, it would be fair to say, was nearly all Bangor's.  They took advantage of playing down the slope, and Donaghadee did not play as well after the interval. After a  sustained series of well co-ordinated attacks Bangor were awarded a penalty in what looked like a very kickable position.  Success would have brought the score to 13-8, or only a try from drawing level.  Bangor decided to kick for touch in order to have the throw-in and the opportunity to crash over the Dee line.  But the Law has just been changed and Donaghadee were able to clear their lines..  Such a tactic now carries nothing like the percentage it used to.  It never did succeed as much as fifty per cent of the time.  The new Law is to reduce the chance of gaining the try to about ten per cent.  The next few weeks will see this ploy almost disappear.

Pressure causes mistakes.  Bangor increased the pressure, and Donaghadee were now making too many mistakes.  Holes began to open in the defence, misunderstandings appeared and the ball was being turned over too often.  In part this was because they made some substitutions which with the benefit of hindsight did not work as well as they might have.  Substitutions always alter a team's rhythm and pattern, but in the early season it is necessary to explore a number of different patterns, but it was plain to all spectators that the Donaghadee team did not gel as well as they had been doing.  This is not a reflection on individuals, but Bangor did get the chance to come back into a game that they were beginning to think they had lost.

But Bangor's penalty kicks eventually did come.  They were unlucky with one which hit the upright, but it soon was fed back for the outside-half to drop a simple goal.  In quick order Donaghadee were penalised too close to their goals and Bangor kicked two more.  These effectively finished the match 14-13 with only a minute or two to go.  A measure of how important Bangor felt this game to be was the tumultuous roar from their supporters and players when in the dying seconds they scored an all-too-easy bonus try between the posts which so clearly put the result beyond doubt that they did not even need to make a serious effort to convert it.