The domestic rugby season gets going this Saturday and the opening game should be a belter with champions Ramsey travelling to Ballakilley Park to take on runners up PDMS Southern Nomads.

The post-covid domestic rugby landscape is a poor sight at the moment and the falling away of second teams at Ramsey, Nomads, Douglas and Vagabonds has left the Shield a three-way competition with Western Vikings coming in as the third.

All three clubs are augmenting their meagre fixtures lists with ventures into the various Cheshire cup competitions which are on offer.

Historic stats for the game don’t make good reading for Nomads with Ramsey winning their last 20 games. The dearth of matches, however, may even things up although Ramsey did beat Prenton in a Cheshire game at the end of August.

Finn McGregor leads the men in green this season with Ramsey’s Matt Meechan re-elected in a vote of confidence over the summer.

I suspect the pace and guile from the Ramsey backline may be too much for Nomads but with no current form to judge, it’s anyone’s guess how this may turn out.

DAVE CHRISTIAN