Rugby: Curtain falls on Douglas' season

Semi-finals now await in Ravenscroft competitions

Report by Dave Christian:

Douglas’ final outing of the season is this Saturday at Port-e-Chee where they take on Broughton Park.

Its been difficult for them all season with covid bubbling away in the background and this coupled with restricted travelling arrangements has caused no end of issues including a “tail heavy” end to the season, which has been somewhat attritional.

Broughton started the season sluggishly but have gradually pulled away from the foot of the table and are in a respectable eighth place with 11 wins from 24.

With a firm track, Douglas will be hoping their pacey backline can pull of a morale boosting home win to round off the season

Ravenscroft competitions reach semi final stages

Its semi-final weekend in the Ravenscroft Manx Cup & Plate competitions. In the Cup, the withdrawal of Douglas Celts puts Ramsey through to the final via a bye as leaders after the league phase. The remaining place will be fought over by PDMS Southern Nomads and Sure Vagabonds at Ballakilley Park. In the Plate, Ramsey B and Western Vikings face Groundhog Day at the Mooragh after the northerner’s win last week while at Ballafletcher Vagabonds Hornets face Emerging Nomads.

Southern Nomads have met Vagabonds twice in the league stages and won both times. 33-19 at Ballafletcher and 41-12 at Ballakilley. This means that the men in green must start as favourites. Nomads’ strength is based around half-backs George Collister and Mark Young who together make the team tick. Orry Watterson will give the side his all up front and outside the pack, youngsters like Tony Quinn and Josh Smith give plenty of pace options. Vagas though have their threats, Matt Rockwell and Paul Howard are outstanding clubmen and they also have some youngsters on the way through. Expect a tight game here, and a Nomads win based on the formbook.

At Mooragh Park in the Plate, an understrength Western Vikings suffered a big defeat last week. They were however missing a few and I expect we may see Jack Goodwin, Ollie Creasey and possibly Liam Sweeney back for this semi. Those three will give Vikings a little more vavoom which was noticeably lacking last Saturday. Ramsey’s squad was selected with the final in mind and with no reported injuries from last week, the selection for this week should be broadly similar. Fintan Cummins looked sharp for the Blues in only his fourth game of the season and his halfback partner Nathan Robson in just his second senior outing grabbed two tries and three conversions. Based on last week’s result, Ramsey are favourites for this, but if Vikings are back to full strength, it will be much much closer.

The final Plate semi is at Ballafletcher. Vagas Hornets are the form team in the Plate and topped the standings. They will however be pushed for personnel this weekend with a first team game also taking place. Similarly, Emerging Nomads will also be at full stretch and this game will be won by the most resilient of the two. The two skippers Ian Marks and Mike Quayle will be working through their phones this week to rally their troops.

Fixtures 30 April

North One West

Douglas v Broughton Park @ Port-e-Chee ko 3.00pm

Ravenscroft Manx Cup Semi Final

PDMS Southern Nomads v Sure Vagabonds @ Ballakilley ko 2.15pm

Ravenscroft Manx Plate Semi Finals

Ramsey B v Western Vikings @ Mooragh Park ko 2.15pm

Vagabonds Hornets v Emerging Nomads @ Ballafletcher ko 2.15pm