Douglas RUFC under-15s hosted their counterparts from Yorkshire club Aireborough RUFC in friendly at Port-e-Chee on Saturday.

The visitors’ schedule fortunately involved a Friday afternoon flight before Storm Kathleen disrupted the island’s travel links.  

With the senior Douglas squad due at Waterloo but marooned in the island through flight cancellations, the busy touchline was rewarded with some thrilling rugby.

The strong diagonal wind didn’t faze either side and both teams demonstrated remarkable ball-handling, eschewing a kicking game and running the ball at most opportunities.

Kudos to referee Adrian Shimmin who added to the flowing nature of the match as Douglas took a two-try lead when Alfie Perks opened the scoring, and the speedy Archie Davies raced in after offloads from Alex Smith and Arlo Roberts.  

Douglas and Aireborough played an under-15s friendly at Port-e-Chee on Saturday
Referee Adrian Shimmin marshals a scrum between Douglas and Aireborough under-15s (-)

Dan Kelly added a third and a conversion after the break as Alfie Mathieson-Nelson, usually a scrum-half, began to pull the strings at number 10.

But the Yorkshire team put in some determined running, and Harry Crosby crashed through for 17-5 shortly after Euan Higgins and Rory McLoughlin combined to go close to scoring for Douglas as the end-to-end contest continued.

Aireborough’s Finlay Walker finished off a glorious counter for 17-10, just when it seemed defences were ruling the roost and tackles from Joel Jenkins and Jacob Erasmus had kept the Douglas line intact.

It took another spark from Mathieson-Nelson to get Douglas on the front foot, but a spilled pass when Douglas looked odds-on to score resulted in a strong Aireborough counter.

When the Yorkshire boys coughed up a turnover of their own deep in Douglas territory, the home side swept up field with real intent and Davies put his foot on the gas from 40 metres out to plant down the clincher. Kelly converted for 24-10 and despite heroic Aireborough ambition, Douglas were home and dry.

l Vagabonds finished the Counties Four ADM Lacnashire/Cheshire season in third after a 35-0 away defeat at the hands of champions Colne & Nelson on Saturday.

Ashton-Under-Lyne pipped the Manx side to the division’s second promotion spot after they triumphed over rivals Ellesmere Port 12-7 at the weekend.

While the game was just a friendly Vagabonds women’s side picked up their second win on the bounce beating visitors Aspull 20-5 at Ballafletcher on Saturday. Sophie Henry ran in a hat-trick for Vagabonds with Bliss Murtagh grabbing their fourth as both sides wrestled with Storm Kathleen at the exposed pitch. Results: Saturday, April 6 Regional 2 North West Firwood Waterloo P-P Douglas Counties Four ADM Lancashire/Cheshire Colne & Nelson 35-0 Vagabonds Ravenscroft Manx Cup Ramsey 82-0 Southern Nomads Women’s friendly Vagabonds 20-5 Aspull