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League Match:  Donaghadee 17 - 30  Clogher Valley (23/09/00)

"DEPLETED DONAGHADEE GO DOWN TO CLOGHER VALLEY

With the game last saturday only five minutes old, Donaghadee won good clean ball with a fine catch and feed from Andrew Dunn.  This allowed the backs a run and a ruck to form.  From this the ball was squirreled out to Craig Simmons, who dummied his way through the Clogher Valley defence to score under their posts and give Paul Blewitt any easy chance to kick the extra two points.

Donaghadee sustained the pressure on their opponents but could not immediately add to their total.  Clogher Valley came back into the game with some concerted attacks of their own which tested the Donaghadee defence for a time, but the only change to the scoreline was a penalty each way which preserved Donaghadee's lead of seven points.  The Dee's points came from a late tackle on Matt Duff which the referee considered a cautionable offence, and which also took the Clogher Valley No. 8 to the sin bin for 10 minutes.

Near the end of the half, with Donaghadee captain struggling with what apparently is a bad tear of his hamstring muscle, and the C.V. Number 8 back on the field, the visitors were awarded a penalty try when the ref adjudged that Donaghadee had dropped the scrum.  Crucially the conversion kick and a penalty for jersey-pulling took the teams into the break with Donaghadee behind 10-13.

Donaghadee resumed after half-time without Matt Duff and the game was forced into having no-one's choice - uncontested scrums, but it was from open-field play that Donaghadee were undone.  A long clearance kick from Paul Blewitt was caught by the Clogher Valley full-back ten metres inside his own half.  Unbelievably this player ran sixty metres right through the Dee defence to score half way out.  These seven points were cancelled out soon afterwards when John Anderson took a similar score from forty metres out.  Unfortunately as he crossed the line, John tore his hamstring as badly as Duffer had done earlier and had to join his captain on the sideline.

Coming from behind with only thirteen men against fifteen is virtually an impossible task.  Not only are there the inevitable gaps in the attack and the defence, but players are forced into a desperate state of urgency.  This eventually gave Clogher Valley a chance for another penalty goal for diving over the ball.  They took the chance and also took the score to 23-17 in their favour.