Newry Rugby Club have baptism of fire in opener ​

​Newry Rugby Club were on the road for their first league fixture of the season and had a tough task in their opening game.

On a day when the weather was more suited to cricket rather than rugby the host sides line up was a mixture of youth and experience.

With a lot of players still to come back in to the first team panel Newry travelled to Donaldson Park on Saturday with little expectation.

Despite giving up eight tries against one of the favourites for the League Newry showed great spirit and had their moments.

The game was important for Newry to give some inexperienced players a taste of first team action and many impressed in their first senior game for the club.

The players knew they were up against a top side having just dropped down from Championship 2.

Newry fought hard in defence against a ruthless Donaghadee backline. A rare Newry attack took them close to the opposition’s line but a good defensive set eventually resulted in a turnover for Donaghadee and the danger was averted.

With the half-time score reading 33-0 Newry knew it was just a case of taking learnings from the game.

Coach Bruce Cornelius was proud of the players attitude when under pressure from Donaghadee.

He said: "With so many senior players still to return to action this season this game was always going to be a huge ask.

"However it was great experience for some of the lads getting making their first competitive Senior appearance for the club and I was impressed by the attitude and our tenacity in defence against a ruthless Donaghdee.

"This is probably one of the hardest asks this season but we will take the positives and build on it and when the missing players return we will have a bigger squad who have all had a taste of competitive senior rugby."