Dungannon shine brightly under the lights against malone

Malone travelled down the M1 to play Dungannon on Friday in “The Friday night under the lights fixture. Malone played Dungannon in their opening fixture at home under the lights and were winners on that occasion. Our last Friday night fixture saw us lose heavily against Ballynahinch. This fixture saw Malone field a depleted team with numerous players being unavailable due to injury or other commitments.

The home side who were lying in the bottom 3 in the league table had a lot at stake and were certainly up for the clash.

The game started poorly for Malone when after 2 min of play saw the home side breach the Malone defence with a fine run from Chris Cochrane to score a converted try 7-0, Malone reduced the arrears when Niall O’Connor kicked a penalty, 7-3.

Malone were next to score when full back Taylor Acheson made a superb break and looked almost certain to score he had only one defender to beat he looked for support and in doing so lost momentum and the break came to nothing. However minutes later Malone winger Mark Marwood took an excellent score which Niall O’Connor converted, this gave Malone the lead, score now 7-10.

Malone were penalised at the scrum when they appeared to be moving the ball forward, referee Paton awarded a penalty to the home side and this was kicked by Stuart McCloskey to level the scores at 10-10. Malone took the lead when referee Paton awarded Malone a penalty after a period of advantage came to nothing. One again Niall O’Connor who was in excellent kicking form slotted over the penalty, score now 10-13.

The home side were playing well and their pack which was dominant was producing some excellent opportunities for their back-line, Dungannon reclaimed the lead with a try by Mike Dunleavy, converted by McCloskey, score 17-13, another penalty from Niall O’Connor reduced the margin agin to a single point 17-16.

Influential Dungannon number 8 Ali birch was shown yellow by referee Patton, McCloskey knocked over another penalty to advance the score to 20-16 as the first half drew to a close Malone were awarded a penalty close to the half way line which saw Niall O’Connors attempt fall just short, the first half ended with a score line of Dungannon 20 - 16 Malone.

The second half saw the home side come alive and Malone were forced to defend for long periods of the game the Dungannon pack were excellent both at the set piece and in the lose and when they unleashed their back line they were very dangerous. Dungannon went ahead when Jeremy Turkington scored for McCloskey to convert, score 27-16. Niall O’Connor was successful with a penalty to reduce the arrears to 27-19.

It wasn't long before the home crowd were cheering when winger Chris Cochrane crossed the line for his second try, and Dungannon's 4th giving them a try bonus point. Score now 34-19To compound things even further Malone suffered injuries a lost the services of prop David Halliday and scrum half shane Kelly with a calf and hand injury respectively. The game was slipping away from Malone however to their credit the stuck to the task in hand.

Dungannon were to add two further scores, winger Chris Cochrane got this hat trick and Mark Jenkinson added the final score, both of which were converted by Stuart McCloskey who was kicking supremely well.

The game ended with Dungannon worthy winners outscoring Malone by 6 tries to 1, Malone’s injury list becomes even more exhaustive.

DUNGANNON 46 MALONE 16, Stevenson Park (played on Friday)

Scorers: Dungannon: Tries: Chris Cochrane 3, Mike Dunleavy, Jeremy Turkington, Mark Jenkinson; Cons: Stuart McCloskey 5; Pens: Stuart McCloskey 2
Malone: Try: Mark Marwood; Con: Niall O'Connor; Pens: Niall O'Connor 4

HT: Dungannon 20 Malone 16