Fitness key to bright finish to the season

ANDREW Hughes is hoping to bring his tenure at the helm at Stevenson Park to a bright end with positive performances and results from now until the end of the season.

However, for that to happen he knows only too well that he needs his Dungannon squad to be fully fit and firing and this season that hasn’t happened as yet.

Almost since the campaign began, the club has been riddled with injuries and while the lengthy list does seem to be shortening, it doesn’t seem to be nearing an end as Ross Stewart was the latest name added to it when he suffered a dislocated shoulder during Saturday’s 17-all draw at Belfast Harlequins.

And while the fitness issue is key, so too is reversing a frustrating run of form that has seen Dungannon winless in All-Ireland League 2B since a November 6th victory over Malahide, but with Blackrock visiting Stevenson Park this coming Saturday on the back of two decent performances against Quins there is every chance that will change.

The last time the teams met, Blackrock sealed a narrow 29-26 home win with both teams scoring four tries apiece, but on home soil, Dungannon will be confident of reversing that result.

“We haven’t won a match since early November, so it’s been a while but [Saturday’s result] something we can build upon for next week,” Hughes observed.

“But we have to keep guys fit and we have guys who have come back who haven’t done much since the end of November, so we’re not match sharp at all because a lot of the guys didn’t play against Ballymena [in the Ulster Premiership before Christmas] so hopefully each week we will get our match fitness back.

“It’s bad that we’re in January and we’re talking about trying to get match fitness back but that’s where we are at the moment, trying to get up to speed.”

At the weekend, Dungannon were left somewhat frustrated at Deramore Park where they could as easily have claimed a bonus point win as they could have left with nothing against Quins.

In the end, tries from Sean O’Hagan, Stewart and Mark Faloon with a Jordan McIlwaine conversion were enough for a share of the spoils, but it could have been quite different.

“I’m sure they would feel no different but we gifted them two soft scores – the first their man was off-side at the kick and then we missed a tackle, the guy was lined up and we just fell off him,” observed Hughes.

“But then again, they are probably disappointed that they didn’t put us away because we fought and we fought but you could see there were four or five guys who hadn’t played a lot of rugby and by the end they were out on their feet.

“But then, we had them on their line too and crucial things didn’t go our way at important times so maybe it’s three points lost because we could have got a win.

“However, we could quite as easily have come away with nothing so in the grans scheme of things 17-all is probably a fair result.

“But from an encouragement point of view, it shows where we were and where our confidence levels are because some of the guys were unhappy with the two points.”