Rugby: Douglas shut out at Firwood Waterloo

Vagabonds sunk by Ormskirk in league opener

Report by Dave Christian:

Douglas’ indifferent record against Waterloo continued with a 33-0 defeat at Blundellsands in their Regional 2 North West opener. 

Douglas trailed just 7-0 at half time but suffered a dramatic second half collapse which gave Waterloo an ideal beginning to their campaign.

Douglas face Widnes at Port-e-Chee next Saturday and don’t therefore have much time to make any significant changes.

Ormskirk steal Vagabonds' thunder in league opener

Two second half tries from Ormskirk skipper Joe Whitfield helped the visitors secure a bonus point win in a hard fought game at Ballafletcher and gave them a dream start to the season.

Vagas took a very early lead with a sweetly struck Cam Findlay penalty in the second minute. 

Ten minutes in though Ormskirk hit back when Rhys Ward stepped neatly to bisect the Vagas try line. 

This was followed by almost twenty scoreless minutes as the two teams wrestled for territory. 

Vagas won this battle when Joe Louw crashed over from close range to leave his side 8-5 ahead at half time.

Two minutes into the second half Rhys Ward broke clear for the visitors and he found Joe Whitfield in support to score the try. 

Hooker Andy Evans added the conversion and five minutes later he went in for a try of his own which he again converted. 

From 8-5 in front Vagas were suddenly 19-8 behind with quite a bit of work to do.

The workload then got much bigger after Ethan Kermode picked up a yellow card midway through the second half and the numerical advantage was immediately exploited when Whitfield showed pure pace down the left wing for his second. 

With eight to play Whitfield opened up Vagas down the left again and while he didn’t quite finish, centre Ollie Roper did and the lead was up to 31-8. 

Rob Pease gave Vagas the final say with a consolation score near the end but it was too little too late.

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