Rugby: Mixed end of the season for Manx sides

Douglas record highest ever league finish

Results

Saturday, 5 April 2025

Regional 2 North West

Douglas 30-24 Firwood Waterloo 

Counties 3 ADM Lancs/Cheshire

De La Salle 48-12 Vagabonds 

Report by Dave Christian: 

Douglas finish on a high

Douglas beat promotion hopefuls Firwood Waterloo 30-24 in a thrilling finale to their Regional 2 North West season and confirmed a sixth place finish – their highest ever at this level.

The action started from the very first kick when Jonty Cope returned the kick-off for a well taken solo try. Blake Everson doubled the lead just after ten minutes before Waterloo struck back via full back Alex Topping and a James Ratcliffe conversion. 

A Harvey Baker try then put Waterloo ahead but a Nathan Robson penalty at the other end left Douglas 13-12 ahead at the break.

Topping went in for his second just after the break to retake the lead for Waterloo however Douglas then hit a purple patch. Robson added a second penalty, Kyle Martin raced in for a try and Mark Oldfield crashed over from close range. 

Robson converted both of these to make the lead 30-17 with twenty to play. Despite losing Blake Everson to the sin bin, Douglas weathered the storm and were able to close the game out despite a late Waterloo try and conversion from James Ratcliffe.

Vagabonds end season with defeat

De La Salle beat Vagabonds 48-12 as Vagas finally finished their punishing fixture list.

The home-side were chasing promotion and always likely to be difficult to beat however Vagas fronted up well and managed tries from Tom Gascoyne who is rumoured to be retiring at the end of the season and Matty Jones and a conversion from Jack Caine.

While it’s been a difficult season for Vagas, they’ve been competitive at home and have two losing bonus points which suggests that they’re not too far away from competing at mid table level. 

Vagabonds and Douglas will meet in the Manx Cup challenge next Saturday.