At 21-10 ahead with ten minutes to go and camped on their opponents line a Dungannon bonus point win looked very likely. But their inability to close out the game and play to the referee proved critical in this defeat.

Dungannon started well and after two minutes were 7-0 ahead through a Ryan Abernethy try and conversion by Ben McCaughey. The first scrum had resulted in a home penalty so the home side were well on top.

Skerries did prove dangerous at times with the ball in hand but on one attack the ball was spilled when they had a two man overlap. Mid way through the half Dungannon counterattacked but were penalised for an extra roll and the Skerries shot at goal from 40 metres out was wide. A second Skerries penalty resulted in them losing ground, but they continued to press and their number 14 got in for their opening try, converted by Ronan Mulcahy.

As often happened a Dungannon break deep into their opponents territory often resulted in a conceded penalty. Mid way through the half two excellent breaks by Andrew McGregor and Kyle Gormley yielded nothing when the supporting players were found to be infringing.

At times Dungannon were able to put together some good pieces of back play showing penetration but at other times they lacked precision and on one occasion a loose pass was intercepted by Skerries on half way and almost brought them a try but was foiled by some excellent covering back by Toby Gribben to clear the line.

Skerries went 3 points ahead just before the interval with a Ronan Mulcahey penalty at 7-10.

On the Skerries restart Dungannon kept possession and worked their way upfield and after a period of good work by the pack on the visitors line James Gamble, on his 100th 1st XV appearance got the touch down. Ben converted putting Dungannon back in the lead at 14-10.

Within ten minutes of the restart Dungannon went 21-10 ahead when James McMahon made a lot of ground from a midfield scrum and good support brought play to the Skerries line. A pinpoint Andrew McGregor cross kick to the left hand side gave Peter Cashel a relatively easy run in for another Ben McCaughey conversion.

Dungannon persisted in giving away penalties and three such offences in succession meant that play moved from midfield to their own line where they did defend well. They weathered this storm and within minutes looked to have had the bonus point following an excellent Toby Gribben 40 metre break. With the support arriving in numbers unfortunately the referee adjudged the ball was not grounded when over the line.

A number of Dungannon replacements came on and they aided another good attack in the final quarter. Following a secure line out and drive they were penalised for truck and trailer when a score looked very likely.

In the final ten minutes referee Mitchell, not happy with the repeated Dungannon infringements warned captain James McMahon that on the next offence a player would go and unfortunately shortly afterwards he was the recipient of a yellow card. This clearly weakened Dungannon and Skerries worked an overlap for David Goodman to nip in for a converted try 21-17.

A debateable penalty call on full back Ben McCaughey when he was adjudged to be off his feet at a ruck, gave Skerries a final chance deep in injury time. The kick to the home corner, lineout and two phases later Mikey Sherlock cut in through the home defence for the final score 21-22.

A very disappointing day for Dungannon with the first defeat of the season but a clear wake up call. While there were a lot of positives, games cannot be won with a penalty count this high.