Dungannon kept up their promising early season form with what was ultimately a comprehensive victory over Queens University on Saturday at Stevenson Park. Head Coach Johnny Gillespie rotated his squad after last week’s inspired opening win at home to Ballynahinch with six changes in total including a long awaited return to Dungannon colours for local boy Jack Milligan starting at outhalf.

Dungannon had the better of the territory and possession in the opening 20 minutes with several knock ons from both sides as they looked to take advantage of the dry and sunny conditions. The first of many turnovers on the ground from No 8 Adam Milligan and good counter rucking from prop Matthew Stockade led to promising attacking positions however possession was kicked away on both occasions with Dungannon perhaps guilty of lacking a bit of composure early on.

In fact it was Queens who opened the scoring against the run of play. Having missed touch with a penalty in the Gannon 22, Queens went to the corner again with a second penalty and whilst an overthrow let the home side off the hook momentarily, Queens ran the ball back and were soon under the posts after Dungannon fell off a tackle in midfield.

Dungannon to their credit hit back immediately with Adam Milligan winning another penalty for holding on. It was their turn to go to the corner which they did with great success with hooker Sam Montgomery, dotting down. Jack Milligan was narrowly wide with a difficult conversion attempt leaving the score 7-5 to Queens. Unfortunately Jack was to go off injured shortly after to be replaced by Ben McCaughey who came on at full back with Andrew McGregor reverting to outhalf.

After that lengthy stoppage the game resumed with Dungannon scoring a cracking try up the right hand touchline from well inside their own half. Andrew McGregor made the initial break before feeding speedster Mervyn Brown on the wing who duly returned the favour making scoring pass back inside to McGregor. The conversion was missed again to give Dungannon a narrow 10-7 lead at half time.

Playing towards the clubhouse in the second half, Dungannon again made the early running and having built pressure through several phases of play, Ben McCaughey spotted a gap around the ruck and picked and went himself for a super solo score. He duly converted his own try to take the score to 17-7. Dungannon went straight back down in the Queens half from the restart and with an overlap on the right hand side, a Queens player was a judged to have deliberately knocked the ball on in the tackle and yellow carded. Dungannon went to the corner with the penalty and whilst the maul was stopped short, the ball was spun wide with Peter Cashel doing well to gather and dive in out wide. Another difficult conversion was narrowly missed but the score was now out to the 22-7 putting the pressure on the students to respond.

And respond they did. Queens gained some momentum in the Dungannon half moving the ball well between back and forwards and whilst line out problems continued to plague their efforts, they did eventually make their pressure telling with a pick and go try after several good attacking phases.

That was to be as good as it got for the men from Dub Lane. Dungannon Captain for the day James Girvan did well to intercept the ball in midfield which led to Peter Cashel’s second score and an outrageous dummy to go with it which will no doubt be looked by the fines committee during the season. Substitute forward Peter Nichol then put through what could generously be described as a speculative grubber kick but fortune favoured the brave, the bounce was kind and Queens then penalised for an infringement. Jack Girvan was alert to the space on offer tapping and going himself to score and at that stage Dungannon were out of site at 34-14.

Dungannon were enjoying themselves now with more excellent continuity and off loading getting Peter Nichol in for a try of his own before the dancing feet and sweet hands of the surprisingly nimble James Gamble led to a well deserved try for the excellent Andrew McGregor making the final score Dungannon 46 Queens University 14.