Down High heartbreak

Down High heartbreak

27 February 2019

DOWN High School suffered an agonising finish to their Danske Bank Subsidiary Shield quarter-final tie against Royal School Dungannon on Saturday.

In the final act of play, Dungannon crashed over the Down High line right under the posts. The simple conversion that followed gave the Tyrone side a one-point margin at full time sending Down High out of the shield, a competition in which they had been finalists for the last four years.

Down High started the stronger of the two sides and within 20 minutes had established a 10 point lead. 

Jonathan Graham scored the first try of the match after a series of superb continuity plays from the home side. Charlie Marshall gave the final pass that saw Graham free to touch down.

Greg Hutley struck the difficult conversion neatly between the uprights. Hutley added a penalty a few minutes later giving Down a healthy 10-0 lead after the visitors were deemed to be offside in their defence.

As the first half was drawing to a close Dungannon grew in confidence and on the back of some Down indiscipline, found themselves applying pressure on the Down line. 

This eventually gave way to a converted try, leaving Down with a 10-7 lead at half-time.

With the final score in the first half, Dungannon entered the second half with much more confidence. 

They built steady attacks on the Down line and within 10 minutes of the second period had taken a 12-10 lead when they scored an unconverted try. Down responded well to this change in affairs and soon regained the lead with a Greg Hutley penalty.

With 10 minutes to go Down extended their lead when Conor Moag found himself on the end of an awkwardly bouncing cross field kick that bamboozled the Dungannon defence. 

The conversion attempt went wide and Down were left with a six point lead, a lead that should have been enough to see them through the fixture. 

The final moments were tense and while Down fought off a number of Dungannon attacks, the crucial moment came in the last minute of play when the visitors broke through under the posts for a try which they easily converted. Unsurprisingly, the home side were devastated when the final whistle sounded.

This Saturday sees the Down High Medallion side take on Omagh Academy in the Medallion Bowl final. This fixture is to be played at RS Dungannon with an 11am kick off.