Rugby: Douglas host Widnes in first home tie of new season

Vagabonds head to Orrell in Counties 3 ADM Lancs/Cheshire

Douglas face their first home fixture of the new Regional 2 North West season this weekend, hoping to put an opening day defeat seven days ago behind them.

The Manx side welcome Widnes to Port-e-Chee on Saturday with both teams hoping to bounce back from disappointment last weekend.

Douglas suffered a chastening 33-0 loss at one of the last campaign's top sides Firwood Waterloo on 7 September.

On the same day, Widnes came away empty-handed on home soil against another of the frontrunners of 2023/24 in the form of Crewe & Nantwich in a 12-27 defeat.

For this latest test, Douglas make four changes to their 19-man squad.

Simon Hoddinott and Carl Markle-Fearns aren't included this week along with Shay Waterworth and Wilf Hewson.

Among the replacements are head coach Phil Cringle who's set to be named in the starting XV along with Craig McGee and Harry Hewson whilst Richard Bell is included among the subsitutes.

'Vagas' head to Orrell

Report by Dave Christian:

Vagas face Orrell away this weekend in round two of Counties 3 ADM Lancs/Cheshire - neither side got off to a great start last week but Vagas will surely feel the more positive. 

They led 8-5 at half time against Ormskirk and they dominated the set-piece scrum, however Ormskirk’s lightning full back scored two and had a hand in two more at the other end, proving the difference between the sides. 

Orrell by contrast conceded an away walkover against Dukinfield and have suffered a five-point deduction in the process finding themselves on minus five points after just one match! Vagas will undoubtedly see this as possible weakness and look for some away points.

Vagas didn’t do that much wrong last Saturday, they led at the break and dominated at scrum time; the handling was good too, they just got caught narrow a couple of times by a gifted and pacey full back. 

They’ll focus on the problem areas in training this week but will probably change very little, subject to availability of squad members for travel. 

Norman Winterbach looks to have signed from Southern Nomads too and is likely to help out up front.

Skipper Dan Bonwick has a centre pairing just outside him of Archie Benson and Cal Donnell who both looked sharp last week and Ethan Kermode was a great shout off the bench even if he did draw a yellow card. 

On last week’s form this could be a Vagas win, however Orrell almost won the 1991/92 Courage League title and although they’ve slipped some way down the rankings, there’s still some club pride there and overconfidence is something Vagas need to be aware of.

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