Rugby: 'Old Firm' to meet in Manx Trophy

Western Vikings to make debut in Manx Bowl

The “old firm” meet in Ravenscroft Manx Trophy

Its round two of the Manx Trophy this weekend and the eye-catching game on the card is at Port-e-Chee where Vagabonds visit Douglas Celts.

Douglas’ start last week against Southern Nomads was postponed so quite what their side will look like is something of an unknown.

Vagas by contrast will be disappointed by their outing last week when they were beaten by Ramsey 64-15 despite being only 26-10 down after fifty-five minutes.

Nathan Gibson was the pick of the Vagas players with some big carries around the park and Jon Reilly’s performance on the wing was pretty industrious too, despite the lack of ball. These two if fit will definitely pose a threat.

The other Trophy game is at Mooragh Park where Ramsey will host Southern Nomads.

There’ll be at least one change to the Ramsey side with second row Jack Roberts absent with an ankle injury. Youngster Josh Corteen may be available but Rory Nicholson is likely to get the start after some solid work last week.

Brandon Atchison, Dan Bonwick and Callum Clague scored seven tries between them at Vagas and Nomads will need some hard graft to contain them.

With no game last week its difficult to predict what Nomads may look like but with players like Orry Watterson, Ross Mann, Django Kinley and Ethan McNaught on the roster, they should be competitive.

Western Vikings make debut in Ravenscroft Manx Bowl

The Peel men had a week off last Saturday and make their debut in the competition with a home fixture against Castletown.

Town lost their opener against Emerging Nomads last week and will need to regroup for a trip to Peel which is always a tough place to pick up points.

Harry Goodwin is a big player for Vikings and he looked in great touch in the last of the pre-season warm ups.

Meanwhile, the other fixture in the competition which was scheduled this weekend between Ramsey B and Emerging Nomads has been postponed.

Report by Dave Christian

Fixtures 9^th October

Womens NC 1 North West

Leigh v Vagabonds @ Leigh

Ravenscroft Manx Trophy

Douglas Celts v Vagabonds @ Port-e-Chee ko 2pm

Ramsey v PDMS Southern Nomads @ Mooragh Park ko 3.00pm

Ravenscroft Manx Bowl

Western Vikings v Castletown @ QE2 School ko 2.15pm

Ramsey B P-P Emerging Nomads