Late try salvages two points for off colour Dungannon

DUNGANNON salvaged two points from their trip to Limerick where they fell to a disappointing 33-26 defeat to UL Bohemians last Saturday.

Seamus Lyne’s 11th minute try converted by Oisin Fagan put the home side into the lead before Dungannon struck back through a Sam Montgomery try converted by Ben McCaughey and the nip and tuck nature of the opening half continued as Joe Johnson scored for the home side, with Fagan adding the extras, while James McMahon did likewise for the visitors who trailed 14-12 at the 34th minute stage.

Bohemians engineered some daylight on the stroke of half-time when Fagan converted his own try and immediately after the restart they stretched their advantage to 14 points when David Rowsome scored and Fagan added the extras.

Dungannon then struck back on the hour mark when McCaughey converted McMahon’s second try of the game but Darragh O’Gorman responded almost immediately and Fagan knocked over another two points to make it 33-19.

But with only three minutes remaining, Cameron Steenson dotted down and McCaughey kicked a vital conversion to ensure Dungannon not only earned a fourth try bonus point but also a losing bonus point too.

And while relieved his side returned to Stevenson Park with something, head coach Jonny Gillespie was less than impressed by his side’s display on the day,

“We were just too sloppy and inaccurate across the board,” he observed. “There were some nice moments, there were times when we did play quite well but we just switched off at the wrong times – forced a pass that didn’t need to be forced or were too slow in support play.

“It’s just disappointing because the fundamentals just weren’t good enough an we got two bonus points in the end, which is useful, but my team-talk at full-time was still both barrels because we want more, we expect more and that comes with pressure and we need to get used to that.

“If we want to do what we want to do there has to be consequences if we don’t get it right and today is a good example of that.”

Dungannon entertain an in-form Malone today at Stevenson Park.