Bevan Lynch's men were informed by Monivea at 8am before they set out on their journey that the pitch was playable; they travelled to Tuam rugby club 30 minutes from Monivea to prepare for the fixture and their pitch there was in outstanding condition.

Unfortunately the referee Barry O'Keefe from the Leinster Branch (IRFU) inspected the Monivea pitch 30 minutes before the kick-off time and declared that the ground at one side, which was shaded from the sun by trees, was unplayable. The game was postponed and will now be played on Saturday, January 2, at Monivea.

City of Derry Coach Bevan Lynch said: "We are very disappointed considering it's going to be another eight hour round trip the day after New Year's Day when conditions could again be inclement.

"We had prepared well at Tuam Rugby Club and were looking forward to the challenge that Monivea were going to present. We are now going to have a third league fixture to catch up on as we were due to play Bangor away on January 2. We are going to get into a situation where we will have to play midweek fixtures to clear the backlog, which is not ideal."

Meanwhile one of the biggest days of the year at City of Derry will see an all day Festival of Rugby on Boxing Day. Derry Under 15's kick off the first game against Foyle College at 10.30am and this will be followed by the Under 17's at 11.15am and the Under 19's at 12.15pm both games against Foyle College opposition.

The Golden Oldies Cityside play the Waterside at 1.30pm and all past players of all ages over 35 years old are invited to come along and play for any length of time they can survive for. The main game of the day sees the Married Men play the Bachelors in the Club, this game kicks off at 2pm. It promises to be a great day of Rugby on Boxing day and everyone is invited to come along and renew old friendships.

Teams - Married Men: M O'Kane, D Oram, B Prue, J Allen, R Allen, J Egana, M Spencer, S Burke, D Gough, R Gillen, J Mitchell, S Polock, M Nicholl, B Lynch.

Single Men: J Bennett, C Inglis, G Boyle, J Lafferty, P Duffy, S Logue, C Creggan, E McIvor, Stephen Duffy, J Scott, P Patterson, K Lynch, Peter McFeely, Paul McFeely, J Caithness, L Smyth, R Flanagan, M Hammill, R Peoples, Michael Poole, W Harkin, S Ferguson.