A good game played in fairly neutral conditions at Stevenson Park. The first half was fairly even with possession and field position democratically distributed. Whilst both sides were keen to play rugby they were constantly searching for the ideal attacking circumstances. The second half was really dominated by Dungannon but Bohs are a quality side and it took the full eighty plus minutes for Gannon to seal the win. UL Bohemian had a disastrous kick off with Dungannon benefitting from the restart scrum and moving swiftly up field. Bohs infringed at a scrum and Gannon took the lead with a simple Ben McCaughey penalty in the third minute. The visitors then applied pressure with significant breaks that were rescued by good work from Toby Gribben and Andrew McGregor. Bohs then took the lead through two Oisin Fagan penalties in the twelfth and sixteenth minute. After some Dungannon pressure a dropped ball gave Bohs another opportunity that was only denied by the efforts of Peter Nelson; albeit at the expense of a five-metre scrum. Gannon’s defence was tested but held. The chess game continued with both sides probing for an opening. Then following a phase of Dungannon possession a break was made. Peter Nelson found himself in space, in the Bohs twenty-two he passed to Ben McCaughey. Ben fed a flying James Girvan, who had taken a superb line to race over for a try on thirty-eight minutes. Ben converted leaving the half time score 10 – 6 to Dungannon. Dungannon were on the front foot after the break and their pressure was rewarded with two Ben McCaughey penalties on forty-three and forty-six minutes giving Gannon some breathing space.

Bohs continued to move the ball with purpose and Dungannon countered with more aggressive attacking. Just after the hour mark Gannon opted to go for the corner from two penalty opportunities; although both occasions almost bore fruit, their lack of success and points tested the blood pressure of the faithful. Hindsight is a wonderful talent! Their health worsened when UL Bohemian cleared their twenty-two courtesy of a penalty and after another offence entered the Gannon twenty-two and scored a try through Kian Regan. Oisin Fagan converted after seventy minutes. The gap was now three points. However, Dungannon’s aggression, ably led by James McMahon, continued. Bohs defence was good and after another Gannon assault, with time running out, Peter Nelson completely changed the direction of attack. He found Mervyn Brown who did well to retain possession and beat two defenders, he did even better when he made the line with a tackler on his back. Mervyn stretched out his arm to touch down and give Gannon a match winning try that relieved the faithfull’s blood pressure. Ben converted and Referee Munce blew the final whistle.
Another entertaining match between two good sides. Bohs were always dangerous, but Gannon were sufficiently dominant in the second half to deservedly take the four points.