West 3 Update - 13 January 2017

The battle at the top of West 3 was won by Strathendrick who were 29-19 victors at Uddingston.

This was our first chance to watch any West 3 rugby this year, and we very much enjoyed the game. Both teams are pretty strong defensively, with few opportunities to be had out wide, but Endrick were the stronger up front in the forwards, having the upper hand in the scrums and an effective maul - a couple of their tries coming directly from a driving maul.  Best try of the game however came from Uddie, when after a series of drives, they spread the ball wide to score in the corner.  Moment of the game was however when the Uddie sub prop scored under the posts having dummied and then side stepping the Endrick defence - a joy to see.

The result means Endrick are now 6 points ahead of Uddie, with a game in hand - with five games remaining, Endrick would need to lose at least two games for Uddingston to catch them.

Loch Lomond kept up the pressure on Uddingston for second place with a 29 nil victory at Bishopton, whilst fourth placed Strathaven lost 21-13 at Birkmyre.  Birkmyre might be in fifth place, but they are only 11 points clear of Arran at the foot of the table.

Wigtownshire had a big 47-13 win against Moffat, which moves them on to the same points as Moffat, whilst Police Scotland won 13 nil away at Arran.

With 11 points separating 6 teams at the foot of the table it's all very interesting, though we're not clear about what will happen with relegation here.  With McLaren having pulled out of West 2 earlier in the season, there is no team to drop down to West 3 - does this mean that to keep the league at 10 teams, no team will drop out of West 3?

An added complication at the foot of the table is the number of teams who have games to catch up, e.g. Arran have played 11 games, whilst Moffat and PSG have played 15 - so still plenty of scenarios to play out here.

The weather has already called a halt to 3rd v 2nd encounter, and the 4th v 1st game.  At the moment, the games still on are Bishopton v Wigtownshire, PSG v Birkmyre and Moffat v Arran.

January 7th Results
West 1
West 2
West 3
West 4