Dungannon open campaign with win over Harlequins

Dungannon 17
Belfast Harlequins 12

OUT-HALF Luke McMullan grabbed a brace of excellent tries as Dungannon opened their league campaign with a hard-fought victory over Belfast Harlequins at Stevenson Park.

McMullan scored a fine individual try to give the home side a 7-5 interval lead and touched down again in the second period to seal the points.

As the scoreline suggests there was little between the sides at any point in the contest.

Conor Cambridge opened the scoring for the visitors after Harlequins attacked at pace on the blind side to puncture the home defence.

Dungannon responded with a period of sustained pressure before McMullan sparked the home side’s challenge by chipping the ball over the top and gathering it to touch down in quite brilliant fashion. The fly-half duly added the conversion to give the home side a two-point advantage going into the interval.

Both sides continued to trade blows on the resumption of the second period with Jack Reavey extending Dungannon’s lead with an excellent try which went unconverted.

After that Harlequins enjoyed a lot of the ball as they strived to narrow the gap but the ‘Gannon defence remained relatively solid throughout.

Just when it seemed the visitors were making real gains, the home side countered and that man McMullan relieved the pressure by crossing the whitewash for a second time. Jordan McIlwaine duly added the conversion to give the hosts a 12-point cushion.

Harlequins though refused to throw-in the towel and Mark Glover touched down for a score that was converted by Paul Kerr to leave a single score between the sides.

In the end the visiting challenge came up just short and now Dungannon can look forward to their trip to local rivals Omagh next weekend.