Tries from Rowan Halsall, Chris Cochrane and Michael Lawton were enough to see Dungannon home on Saturday afternoon against, determined Limerick side, Bruff.

The visitors had the best of the opening quarter putting Dungannon under pressure from the off. However Dungannon’s well marshalled defence kept the visitors at bay, but as a heavy rain shower broke out Dungannon struggled to break out of their own half. The visitors  pressure eventually told with a penalty in front of the posts, converted by the Munster side’s out half, giving Bruff a 0 – 3 lead.

As the rain cleared Dungannon began to find their game and after a couple of probing sorties into the Bruff half the home side broke clear on the right with wing forward Rowan Halsall powering over for the opening try. Full back Michael Lawton added the extras and with no further score in the first half the teams turned round with the score reading 7 – 3.

Dungannon got on top at the start of the second half with scrum half Michael Kirkwood and second row Michael Rainey coming close before veteran Kieran Campbell found Chris Cochrane in space with the winger busting through  a few tackles to score under the posts. Kirkwood added the extras to put the home side into a 14 – 3 lead.

Bruff upped their game and forced a push over try shortly after which went unconverted leaving the score at 14 – 8 and with six points between the teams and Bruff finding a second wind the game was getting tense.

Lawton eased Dungannon’s nerves with a powerful break from the halfway line, finished off with a (semi) spectacular dive under the posts. Lawton added the extras as his team mates celebrated giving the scoreline a degree of comfort with Dungannon leading 21- 8.

Despite both sides having chances neither side managed to trouble the scoreboard with Dungannon closing out fairly comfortably for a deserved win.

Dungannon: Philip Whyte, Adam Duhig, Glen Sinnamon, Michael Rainey, Aaron Fry, Callum Threlfall, Rowan Halsall, Stuart McKenzie, Michael Kirkwood, Kieran Campbell, Chris Cochrane, Glen Telford, Paul Magee, Stuart Lester, Michael Lawton, Chris Knipe, Ben Howard, Tim Smith, Darren Simpson.