Rugby: Potentially poignant tie for Douglas at Broughton Park

Crucial weekend awaits for Vagabonds at Port Sunlight

Report by Dave Christian:

Things are looking tight at the bottom end of Regional 2 North West as the teams move into the final flurry of fixtures. Douglas have a strongish position and a seven point buffer from the danger area but the team just below them Broughton Park have a couple of games in hand and when Douglas visit them this Saturday, both teams will know how important the result will be.

Douglas have had two good performances since Christmas and gave real cause for concern to the two top teams Anselmians and Bowdon. If they can get their full strength side away this week they should be capable of taking points off Broughton Park.

They won 39-7 at Port-e-Chee earlier in the season and while the away game will be no picnic, it is eminently winnable.

D-Day for Vagabonds

As Counties 3 ADM Lancs/Cheshire nears its finish line, Vagabonds have just three games remaining if they are to avoid finishing bottom. 

The first of these is this weekend’s trip to Port Sunlight who sit just above Vagas in the standings but are six points clear. A bonus point win for Sunlight this week will mean that Vagas will finish bottom whatever happens in the remaining games. Whether that will mean relegation is something of a moot point. At present there is a Division Four but whether there will be next season is a different question and the league regulations allow the organising committee to take a pragmatic view.

Port Sunlight won 33-16 at Ballafletcher back in November and will start as favourites for sure. Vagas however put in a huge defensive shift last Saturday and will no doubt be targeting this game. They have two home ties to finish their season and while one is against unbeaten Hoylake the second is against Bury and could well yield points, hence the importance of this week’s game.

There were no reported injury worries from last week. The set piece worked and they made inroads into Garstang but just lacked a little bit of penetration to get across the line which has been the same all season. Their points average is just over eight per game and that isn’t enough to secure wins. Nathan Gibson gave that impetus but his return to Northern Ireland was not well timed for Vagas. Dan Bonwick’s move from Ramsey may assist but it could take him a few games to adjust and that’s time they simply don’t have.

Two games in Manx Trophy

There are two games scheduled in the Ravenscroft Manx Trophy this week. Castletown host Ramsey’s Reds and Western Vikings while Southern Nomads Green host Ramsey’s Blues and the Eastern Barbarians in a re-run of gameweek one.

The Reds should dominate at Poulsom Park but are likely to be joined at the  top of the standings by Nomads Greens who should pick up maximum points at Ballakilley and Western Vikings who should pick up a share of the spoils in Castletown.

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