By 
SOME weekends are pivotal in league campaigns, and the results this Saturday in Ulster Championship 3 were truly consequential.
With Strabane producing probably their best display of the season, against another side with their own title aspirations, as they thumped Donaghadee 47-10 at Bradley Way, and Civil Service producing the upset of the decade at home to Virginia, the Championship 3 table looks very favourable at the two thirds played mark.
Strabane sit proudly atop the league, having beaten previous league leaders Virginia away last week, and now have the outcome of the season in their own hands.
From the first whistle, you could see the determination in the eyes of the Strabanimals, and they immediately set up camp in the Donaghadee 22.
Solid defence from the visitors, assisted by a strong wind behind them, eventually lifted the siege, and Dee got their chance to test the home defence.
From a scrum on the Strabane 22, number 8, Ruan de Beer lifted from the base and swatted the first 3 attempted tackles away before linking with outside centre Jonny Orr. Jonny drew 2 men and gave a delicious pass to winger Ben Galbraith, who danced through another two tackle attempts before being hauled down just short of the line. After a sharp recycle, outhalf Willy Finlay threw a perfect long pass for the rampaging DeBeer to run on to, against a now scrambling defence, and he showed his class to split the Dee D and crash over, Willy adding the icing to make it 7-0.
The visitors worked their way down into the Strabane 22 again, and used their big forwards effectively to rumble towards the line, and just as the pressure was reaching critical, up popped the youngest Orr again with a crucial intercept, showing his rugby brain with a great read, tearing off up the pitch, then offloading unselfishly to his supporting fullback CJ Groblar, who hit the afterburners to finish between the sticks, 14-0. Dee came at us again, with their big runners throwing themselves relentlessly at the rock that was the home defence, and again the tackling kept driving the visitors backwards. Eventually a rather hopeful kick from the visitors gave the ball in space to the ever dangerous CJ, how immediately spotted a gap and shot off to the corner flag, where a desperate cover tackle was not enough to stop Groblar from making it 19-0, tough conversion missed.
From the restart kick the sizeable crowd of supporters were treated to a contender for try of the season. Openside Jake McDevitt made a strong break over halfway and off loaded out of the tackle to the ever present Jonny, who smartly fed his centre partner AJ Gous, who thundered into the 22. AJ survived the tackle and offloaded to his hooker Ryan McKitterick ,who took a tackle, drew 2 men in and gave a filthy pop off the ground to the still rumbling ‘Goose’, who dragged the last defender over the line in a thrilling score. The assembled Strabane supporters were in raptures after that flowing score, having often paid to see Ulster and Ireland produce no better, and club treasurer David Warnock was quick to remind everyone that he’ll soon be looking a contribution from all in attendance. With rugby like that on display, we will very gladly give it. That left the half time score 26-0, a very solid return on the work invested and playing in to the wind to boot.
The second half saw Donaghadee mount a mini revival with a hard fought try and were also eking out an advantage in the scrum, with their tight-head causing the home front row no end of problems, but normal service was soon resumed when CJ claimed his hatrick and Willy polished it to 33-5. Some more excellent defence set up the next score. After yet another dominant tackle by Goose, ‘McKitty’ reacted first to a loose pass and set Ruan off into acres of space. With the huge number 8 barreling towards him, the Dee fullback made a sensible business decision to take no interest in tackling him, headed out by the touchline and Ruan cantered under the sticks, with Finlay adding the tally up to 40.
Jake was justly rewarded for his excellent all round work with Strabane’s final try of the game, finishing off yet another great team effort and Finlay made no mistake with the extras, leaving the final score 47-10, Dee getting a consolation score at the death.
This was a very pleasing performance in every department from Strabane, who looked hungry from minute 1 to 80 and made a strong Donaghadee side look very average.
Head coach Neville Magee said after the match: “Great heart shown from the team today to secure an important win over Donaghadee. The squad delivered top drawer rugby when it was needed to keep on top, scoring tries in both halves showing the energy, determination and skill is there any time of the match and with different players on the pitch and a backline reshuffle mid-match.
“A good performance 1 to 18. And a stand out performance from Johnny Orr gaining him Man of The Match”.
Jonny deservedly got the nod, with very stiff competition from forwards Gerard “Big G” Doherty and Ruan, who both produced excellent games, and AJ and CJ in the backs were also in that conversation. Jonny got the nod as he is only 18, playing his 3rd senior game, locked down the 13 channel, one of the most technically challenging positions on the pitch, before slotting in to his natural 10 position, like to the manor born.
The whole squad can take huge pride from their day’s work, and when the news of Service defeating nearest rivals Virginia 9-7, filtered through to the cricket club, the cheering and singing was a sight to behold.
Strabane now know that they control the destiny of the league title, but there are still six games to play, and no-one in Strabane is in any doubt as to the work still required.
With the Gordon West semi-final looming on the 14th of February and completion of the new clubhouse due within the next month, the end of the ’25-’26 season looks to be as exciting as any seen in the last 12 years.
