More derby delight for Dungannon

IN the end, Dungannon sealed a comfortable derby win over Clogher Valley but it wasn’t as straightforward as they 12-point deficit would suggest.

Clogher took the lead at Stevenson Park when Karl Bothwell dotted down for an effort converted by David Maxwell, who missed penalties either side of that score.

The home side responded well, however and by the break they had engineered a 21-7 advantage after James Gamble (2) and Mervyn Brown scored tries, all of which were converted by Ben McCaughey.

Dungannon kept the pressure on the Valley defence after the restart and they extended their lead through a Kyle Gormley try, converted by McCaughey, but Clogher weren’t about to throw the towel in and they bounced back in style with two tries in the space of six minutes as Neil Henderson and Jamie Allen both touched down. Maxwell converted both to leave one converted try between the sides.

Unfortunately for the visitors, a mistake gave Dungannon the ball in Valley territory and they were able to capitalise in the final minute when Daniel Mikolajczyk rumbled over in the corner to seal the victory, much to head coach, Jonny Gillespie’s delight.

“They were very good and they came right back at us as we knew they would,” he acknowledged. “They have quality and they are well coached and they will have a big, big part to play in this league, there’s no doubt about it.

“They will learn from that and go from strength-to-strength. We were very impressed with them when we had them analysed. They are loose in a good way – they are hard to pin down so what was really pleasing for us was we identified a few areas we wanted to go after and they all paid dividends today [Saturday].

“We know they’re players quite well. We know what they like to do and they got a couple of opportunities they let go but I was generally pleased that we stood up to them physically because if you give these guys an inch they will take a mile. They are a big, gnarly, physical outfit and are good athletes, so it was about hanging in and we did that, took our chances when they came and a few things that we tried on the training park came off.

“That’s a real confidence booster for us as we go into Wanderers, etc, so we’re content but it was really tough. It was a real, proper Ulster derby.”

As pleased as Gillespie was that his gameplan paid off, Clogher head coach, Stephen Bothwell was frustrated by it, acknowledging that his players found Dungannon to break down on the day.

“It was kind of frustrating to play against them,” he observed. “They have a very simple gameplan done really well. They have a good scrum and lineout and a good hard D.

“It was us trying to move ball and them mailing it was the story of it. They probably won the collisions in the middle of the park and when the rain came down we couldn’t get moving it as sweetly as we’d like.

“The game as over at 28-7 but then we scored a couple of tries to start pushing it at 21-28 but in the last play they got us into our own corner and mauled us over.

“There was five minutes there we had them under pressure [at 21-28], we were on the front foot but we spilled a kick forward and out and that is where they got their late momentum from. Previous to that we got down the line from the previous kick out and scored to make it 21.”

THE TEAMS

Dungannon

J Gamble, S Montgomery, S O’Hagan, C Steenson, C Johns, S Todd, D Leyburn, J McMahon, A Johnston, A McGregor, P Cashel, K Gormley, J Girvan, M Brown, B McCaughey. Replacements: D Mikolajczyk, M Stockdale, A Edgar, M Maguire, T Gribben.

Clogher Valley

M Treanor, A Crawford, N Henderson, J Busby, M Wilson, D Stinson, C Smyton, J Allen, M Bothwell, D Maxwell, T Haire, L Russell, P Armstrong, K Bothwell, E Haire. Replacements: A Dunwoody, K Cobane, E McKenna, R Primrose, J Woods.