Southern Nomads’ under-16s’ foray into the Cheshire Bowl came to an end on Sunday when they lost 29-5 away at Caldy in the competition semi-final.

Gareth Watt and Danny Rothchell’s Port Erin side set out their stall early with some fantastic pressure and solid defence which kept them camped inside the Caldy 22.

A few handling errors and aggressive Caldy turnovers just kept the Manx side short of crossing the line a number of times.

The first half ended all square at 5-5 with Nomads’ try coming from Micheal Van Zyl in his first game back from a long-term injury.

Nomads were hit with a rush of injuries mid-game and the structure started to slip.

Some good turnover ball opened the door for Caldy’s powerful pack and strong centre pairing to push Nomads back and eventually they went over taking the lead.

The middle of the second half saw Nomads fighting back but they could not quite find the continuity to get over the line and with another injury from some dogged defensive work, Caldy took a strong lead that Nomads just couldn’t recover from.

The Nomads man of the match went to Jack McHugh for his powerful line-busting runs, but there were many other outstanding performances from the 20-man squad.

The campaign is now over for Nomads but they’ll be back in action in March with some home games against touring sides.

Southern Nomads squad: Alex Bobok, Fyn de Backer, Matthew Coates, Josh Linwood, Jack McHugh, Hugo Perrie, Charlie Rotchell, Callum Ryan, Troy Smith, Stan Cubbon, Oisin Dunne, Josh Kemp, Seb Meechan, Charlie Quirk, Leo Titley, Abe Van Zyl, Michael Van Zyl, Arlo Vernon, Ethan Watt and Ted Weatherill.