Laverty's men cruise to victory

CITY of Derry Thirds played their first home game of the season on Saturday against an in-form Dromore side who had won their opening two fixtures of the season.

The home side started brightly and got the opening score when centre Greg Mitchell broke through several tackles to score an unconverted try.

However Dromore replied immediately when slack Derry defence at a lineout let the visitors in for an unconverted try of their own.

The Judges Road men stepped it up a gear and Paddy Owens was on hand to pick up from the base of a ruck and force his way over after good approach play from the forwards, Jason McDermott adding the extras.

With the majority of possession it was only a matter of time before Derry added a third with John Laverty scoring on the stroke of half time after a sniping break from Adam Kyle, who was playing his first competitive game in almost two years.

The game was as good as over within 10 minutes of the restart with Paddy Gough and Jason McDermott both finishing off some fine team moves instigated by Eoin Halliday and Greg Mitchell to move Derry into a 29-5 lead.

To their credit Dromore kept battling and after sustained pressure eventually broke down the Derry defence for another unconverted try.

But the hosts were to have the last try of the game with Jason McDermott picking up his second of the afternoon breaking through some weak tackles to run in from halfway to leave the final score 36-10.