Gannon give Quins a pre Christmas gift

Dungannon6
Belfast Harlequins26

DUNGANNON rounded off their pre-Christmas All-Ireland League campaign in disappointing style at Stevenson Park on Saturday when they slumped to a 26-6 reverse to Ulster rivals, Belfast Harlequins.

Andrew Hughes’ men never really got going against Quins and their misery was compounded by their own errors gifting their opponents scores at key times.

The visitors took the lead through a Paul Kerr penalty after 15 minutes and the same player then added a converted try a quarter of an hour after that to make it 10-0.

Jordan McIlwaine reduced the arrears by three points on 34 minutes but three minutes from the interval Kerr knocked over another three points.

The first half action didn’t end there however. The visitors were reduced to 14 men but Dungannon could only add another three points through McIlwaine before the break and after the restart they were unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage.

Kerr then knocked over another penalty to extend his side’s lead just after the hour mark and yet another three pointer from the same player on 68 minutes gave the visitors a 13 point lead.

The home side did mount some sustained pressure after that, but the visitors were able to hold them out before clearning their lines and adding a second converted try, this time Tom Morris dotting down before Kerr added the extras with one minute remaining.

“There were too many basic errors. It was going to be the case that the team who made the least errors was going to win and that wasn’t us,” Dungannon head coach, Hughes acknowledged at the final whistle.

“We gifted them the first 16 points, all bar a really good try at the end of the game.”

The week previous at Blackrock College, Dungannon were left frustrating by some poor officiating and the same issue caused grievances again on Saturday.

At one stage the referee was informed of a ‘clear and obvious punch’ by a Harlequins player by one of his lines people, which the official chose to ignore, much to the chagrin of Hughes. And while riled by that decision and others, he admits that his own players weren’t on the ball and caused many of their own issues.

“We didn’t help ourselves,” he explained.

“I tried to warn the lads before the game to be prepared to be frustrated [by the referee] but we were making too many errors. Our kicking game was poor, their halfbacks controlled the game.

“We lacked the control that they had and while they defended well they did what they had to do.”

Dungannon have one Ulster Premiership Division Two clash to look forward to this coming Saturday before enjoying a break until the new year. And Hughes is hopefully the three week lay-off can help revive their fortunes, especially in terms of their lengthy injury list which was extended on Saturday due to Sean O’Hagan suffering a blow, Caolan Mulgrew fracturing his hand and Logan McIlravie tearing his hamstring.

“We’re on our knees with injuries at the moment, especially in the forwards and backs wise we lost another couple today,” said Hughes.

“We need the break to patch a few boys up.”