Rugby: Douglas head to high-flyers Crewe & Nantwich

Three Manx sides also involved in friendlies this weekend

Report by Dave Christian:

Douglas have clearly upset the fixtures committee in Regional 2 North West. After facing the top two sides Birkenhead Park & Bowdon – back to back – Douglas travel this week to play the third-placed side Crewe & Nantwich.

The two have met six times over the years with Douglas 4-1 ahead on wins, however their last meeting was as far back as 2011 so the records count for little.

Crewe have lost just two from nine (unsurprisingly to Bowdon & Birkenhead Park) and will no doubt fancy their chances in this league after transferring across from Regional 2 West Midlands where they played last season.

Douglas only narrowly lost to Bowdon last week and arguably should have won. There were huge performances all through the squad with Brad Bowmar catching the eye in a reshuffled midfield following a training injury to Luke Hyland. 

He’s not though to be fit for this game but Luca Simmons put in a fine shift at ten. Liam Kirkpatrick and Seth Waterworth were excellent both in the set piece and around the park. If Douglas can recreate that Bowdon form on the road, they can win this.

Friendly games at Vagabonds

With the Cheshire Plate and Bowl competitions looming, Ramsey, Southern Nomads and Vagabonds are meeting at Ballafletcher in a three way round robin friendly.

Ramsey look poised in the Cheshire Plate having won two from two and their final game is away at Moore next Saturday. 

A trot out for forty minutes each against Vagabonds and Nomads is ideal preparation. For Vagas, things haven’t gone so well in the Cheshire Bowl and theoretically they have one fixture left at Christleton. 

With a short break in their league games, this series of friendlies is perfect as a little gap filler. Finally, Nomads still have a mathematical chance of Cheshire qualification but need to win their final game and hope someone else does them a favour. 

These matches on top of the stiff test at Douglas last week will help them out.

Low contact session at Castletown

Castletown continue their recruitment activities this week with a Low Contact session at Poulsom Park starting at 1.00pm. The session is based around a Rugby League variant called X-League and is a great way to get involved with Rugby but without the pain. The session is free as well as fun.

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