back to reports

02/12/2006 - Cooke 1XV 63- Donaghadee 6

DONAGHADEE LOSE HEAVILY IN CUP

Last Saturday’s weather started beautiful and finished dreadful. Right in the middle (the crucial time of around 2.30 to 4.00pm) it was a half-way house of cold, dark and not too pleasant. This was very appropriate because for Donaghadee, playing Cooke RFC in the Miller McCall Wylie Junior Cup, the rugby was not very different.

The Shaw’s Bridge club are currently vying with Armagh and Clogher Valley at the top of the Kukri Qualifying League 1 table whilst Donaghadee are fighting for every point at the foot of the same table. This not only indicates a different quality in their respective rugby squads, but also has an important bearing on their attitudes to a mid-season cup campaign.

Cooke have used their great resources to assemble a large and strong squad for their assault on the league title this season and possible elevation to Senior status for next season. For them, cup fixtures present a welcome break from the pressures of the league programme and an opportunity to try different combinations and plays. For a country club like Donaghadee with a small pool of players and struggling for results in the league, the same cup competition can both distract from the main business of the season and has the potential to annoy those niggly injury worries that all teams dread.

For the seasoned spectators this difference was apparent right from the walk on to the playing pitch by the two teams. Cooke’s recent successes have clearly produced an impressive-looking squad. They positively strutted on to the field, and even appeared to have increased their physical stature. In marked contrast the Donaghadee team had the look of a group of guys who would really rather be somewhere else – winning an important league game for instance. Of course the players on both sides were probably not consciously aware of this difference in demeanour before the referee blew the first blast on his whistle. It did not take long before it was glaringly obvious to all.

Donaghadee had first possession of the football – that is Paul Blewitt did as he kicked off into the lowering sun. During the following six minutes he got to do the exact same thing three more times, while not a Donaghadee player touched the ball. In the first move of the game Cooke were a little fortunate when Heywood Fraser made a great stopping tackle on his “22”, stayed on his feet, and was unable to free the ball from the tight grasp of the tackled player. The penalty went against Fraser, and was speedily turned into a try under the Dee posts.

From the restart the Cooke No. 5 collected the ball and simply ran through fifty metres of poor tackling to take the score to a staggering 14-0 in three minutes. If this was hard for the Dee men to stomach, worse was to follow. Sixty seconds later Cooke showed that they could do it in concert too. Most of their team were involved in a superb move that totally stretched the Donaghadee defence just too far – and it was suddenly 21-0 to Cooke.

The Donaghadee men well knew they had started badly, and hurt pride in performance began to kick in. They now began to win some ball, and many of them got their first touch of the ball. Occasionally they even turned it into some gaining of ground. But rugby football can be an unforgiving game. Playing better than you have been doing is not the same as playing better than your opponents. Cooke still had their tails up, and it was not long before their rampant pack were able to make their ruck pressure tell and they rumbled over well out to Donaghadee’s right. Whatever slight compensation the difficult kick might have been to Donaghadee did not matter as the ball sped once again between the sticks to take the irrepressible tide to 28-0.

By now some of the large Donaghadee contingent of supporters had noticed that on the handsome new all-weather hockey field just behind them, the Cooke Ladies’ team were playing Donaghadee Ladies. One or two were beginning to consider taking their support to this game when they observed that something had finally sparked up their rugby football team. The Dee players, collectively, and perhaps in a few cases individually, may have felt uninspired by the fixture initially, but deeper down these men are proud fighters. Pride now cameth after the fall.

As the remaining minutes of the first half ticked away, it became plain that many of the Donaghadee players had formed the thought “We may have lost this game already, but we do not lie down.” Signs of hard graft were now seen. The forwards, with Richard Martindale and Cois Beukes featuring strongly, were showing great effort and cohesion. Instant, albeit small, reward soon came with a well-taken penalty goal by Blewitt. This small success on the scoreboard spurred Donaghadee on, and produced some good work. Last man in defence, Bill Allen, was still putting in the crunch tackles, Graham Gowdy was showing that any time he is needed he is there, and Johnnie Phillips was doing sterling work at the base of the set-pieces.

The improved work of the forwards produced a little more reward soon after. The power-rucking and useful ball retention might well have been rewarded by a try, but Cooke infringed in front of their posts and Blewitt gratefully took another three points, even if it may well have been seven. The small comfort of six points was wiped away just after this when Donaghadee’s new-found determination got them offside at a ruck. Cooke took the penalty very quickly and found such insufficient attention among the Dee players that the referee was signalling a try before some of them knew what was happening, and the half ended with a one-sided scoreline of 33-6.

The new period was hardly in motion before the Cooke full-back caught a ball right in the middle of the field and simply beat the whole of Donaghadee’s cover defence to score in the corner. This was followed by one of those bizarre occurrences that only seem to happen when the ball is running for you. A “nothing” kick ahead was landing just out of Michael Moore’s reach in the Donaghadee half and he appeared to have it totally covered. The ball landed on its point, completely wrong-footing Moore, and perfectly into the hands of the grateful Cooke scrum half. Naturally he gleefully galloped for the line, and Donaghadee were now down 43-6.

The pace and verve of Cooke’s superb Kiwi players was at times awesome. It was not that Donaghadee were completely outplayed in forwards and backs; it was more that every time an opportunity arose one of these players had too much gas or maybe strength for any potential tacklers. In addition their fitness level was such that they were able to provide support when it was needed. If this Cooke side do not win Qualifying One then it will be an exceptionally good outfit that does.

It was only a few more seconds before this pace was displayed yet again when the Cooke Number 8 ran fully sixty metres to score a superb individual try. The sheer physicality of the game by now was taking its toll on the Donaghadee players. Beukes had to retire with a shoulder injury and Blewitt with a badly bent knee.

What was strange at this juncture was that on the one hand any lapse at all by Donaghadee was seeing Cooke taking the ball huge distances down the field, and on two occasions going all the way to score – and yet there were a number of instances where the Donaghadee pack were seen to be rucking their opponents off the ball. It would probably be fair to say that by and large the two packs of forwards were fairly evenly matched, but that in spite of their determination the Donaghadee defence just could not cope with so many superb athletes once they got the ball in an open space.

As the game was heading to its inevitable conclusion Donaghadee had some satisfaction in the last few minutes where they were able to contest very well with the Cooke pack. The game may have ended 62-6 to Cooke, and certainly not one to rush to phone home about, but the Dee men stuck to their task right to the end, and although well-beaten they were certainly not stuffed. As they left the arena the Dee supporters were saddened to hear that the Donaghadee Ladies had been beaten too – 1-0 to Cooke Ladies.

The Donaghadee players last Saturday were:
Billy Allen (c), Jonny Webster, Graham Gowdy, Gordy McBride, Michael Moore, Paul Blewitt, Johnnie Phillips, Andrew Drummond, Dee Herron, Haywood Fraser, Andrew Dunn, Cois Beukes, Norman Bell, Richard Martindale and Andy Weir; subs: Peter Bennett and Aaron McClure.

NEXT WEEK’S RUGBY ACTION

Because the Ulster v. London Irish game is being shown live at the Donaghadee clubhouse this Saturday at 3.30pm the two home games have been re-arranged for 1.30pm kick-offs. These are Donaghadee Firsts in the Miller McCall Wylie Junior Cup and the Thirds’ clash with Holywood. Donaghadee’s Seconds and Fourths travel to Portadown to play the Bannsiders’ Fourths and Fifths respectively. These two games will kick off at the more traditional 1.30pm.