Salford outfit De La Salle arrive at Ballafletcher on Saturday for the first meeting against Vagabonds.

De La Salle sit second in Counties Three ADM Lancs/Cheshire and have won four from four.

Vagabonds by contrast are 12th and have lost four from four, which suggests that the game could well go the visitors' way.

It wasn't that long ago that De La Salle played Douglas in a promotion play-off game. Douglas won and moved to Regional Two North West while De La Salle have clearly dropped a division or two - probably due to the Covid hangover which has decimated so many clubs - and were relegated from Counties Two at the end of last season.

Early results suggest that this may be a temporary blip, although they have had a number of tight results in their four wins.

Vagas will be hoping that home advantage will assist. A week off will have given everyone a chance to shake off any early season niggles and skipper Dan Bonwick should have a full squad to select from.

Joe Louw and Tom Gascoyne both play important roles in the team and were both missing from the 45-0 away defeat at Colne and Nelson two weeks ago. But everyone will need to be on tip top form to get a result against De La Salle.

DAVE CHRISTIAN

Isla is the face of Premiership Rugby campaign

Former Vagabonds women’s rugby player Isla Curphey is one of the faces of a campaign launched recently by Premiership Rugby.

The Powered Differently campaign celebrates ‘superhuman players across the league’ and the Manx player was in the spotlight last week.

The 24-year-old completed a degree in commercial management and quantity surveying at Loughborough University, and now balances a job as a quantity surveyor alongside playing for Loughborough Lightning.

Speaking about her dual career, Curphey commented: ‘Just to be able to sustain rugby in reality motivates me, because obviously in women's rugby it’s not as high level as we’d like it to be with funding and things, so I’m able to assist that so that I can then do my best at rugby.’