Lisburn and Donaghadee had a bit of a scrappy match in the Ulster Rugby Championship D2 on Saturday afternoon at Eglantine Road.

Tempers boiling over has been a feature of quite a few matches, post lockdown, but this one was too scrappy with the constant niggling spoiling what could have been an entertaining game.

It’s a pity because when the teams played rugby it was entertaining. Donaghadee started on the attack with the breeze at their backs but they didn’t get much change out of the home defence in the initial exchanges.

Lisburn broke out with a flowing move eight minutes in with Johnny Mooney rounding the defence out wide for the opening score, unconverted.

Dee worked their way back into the game with a Karl Yellop penalty six minutes later and four minutes after that Connor Fulton barged over from close range for a try. Yellop converted to give Dee a 5 – 10 lead.

The game got spiky after that with a yellow card for each team and continuity was lost. The visitors came out marginally ahead with Yellop adding a second penalty to give Dee a 5 – 13 lead.

With the stiff breeze at their backs I was expecting Lisburn to push on in the second half but it was fairly forgettable with the action largely focused on the middle of the park.

Rhys Coban landed two penalties for Lisburn to take the score to 11 – 13 with minutes to go but the youngster was unfortunate with his attempt to win the game with a difficult kick from out wide with the last play of the game.

Final Score: Lisburn 11 Donaghadee 13

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