West Bowl & Shield Update - 18th August 2018

The competitive rugby season got underway at the weekend with the prelim round of the West Regional Shield and Bowl (which by the looks of the SRU website, is not sponsored by Tennents).

It’s obviously very early in the season, but this prelim round threw up some interesting ties which might help give us an idea about how the league season will unfold.

For us, it was a day out in sunny Bishopbriggs and to the Bearyards, where two of last seasons contenders for the West 1 title (Glens and Garnock) fought out a tough game, not made any easier by the fact that it started raining about five minutes before kick-off.

In all honesty, there wasn’t much between the two sides in the first half, but Glens kicked a couple of penalties and scored a couple of tries from what started out as only half chances, whilst Garnocks only reward was one penalty, giving a half time score of 16 - 3.

Glens then built on their lead early in the second half, with Garnock failing to clear their lines as a charge-down gave prop O’Doherty the chance to dot down from a short distance out, though no doubt it was more like 30 yards after a few beers.

Although there were still 35 minutes remaining, it looked like the game was done and dusted, but a yellow card for high tackle from a Glens forward gave us ten minutes of sustained pressure for the visitors.  The Glens defence proved solid, so despite their pressure in the 22, Garnock only managed one try just as the ten minutes sin binning ended.

Garnock continued to press when the numbers were even again, but created little in the way of clear cut chances, and they were then punished when the Glens centre ran a great line in his own half to put him in the clear for a score under the posts.

Glens finished the scoring with another penalty, to give a final score of 33-8. 

Both side looked strong up front and are keen to shift the ball wide, though perhaps lacked a bit of cutting edge this early in the season.  On this showing, we expect both to be competing for the league title again this season.

In the remaining Shield fixtures, we had another couple of all West 1 ties, with Annan beating Cambuslang by a point and Irvine beating Stewartry by the same margin (and both away from home).

There were a couple of all West 2 games.  Newly promoted Wigtownshire won a close fought tussle away at Cumbernauld, whilst relegated Oban had a comfortable home win against Strathaven.

Helensburgh and Strathendrick swapped leagues last season, and Endrick reinforced these credentials with a comfortable win away at Ardencaple.

Round 1 takes place next weekend, and it serves up another couple of tasty ties, with Endrick hosting East Kilbride the pick of them.  Dalziel, who were relegated from National 3, visit Wigtownshire and they should be strong enough to win, but it’s probably not the easiest introduction to Regional rugby - any complacency and the bus journey back to Motherwell will be a bit of downer.

The Clydebank v Paisley game will also be an indicator of how the Paisley guys have handled losing their coaching team over the close season, and if they’ll be challenging at the top of West 2 again.

In the Bowl there were only three fixtures.  A 24 -10 victory for Mull against Lochaber sets up a home tie with Hyndland, whilst PSG welcomed Birkmyre who were relegated from West 2 after a season they’ll want to forget.  A 42-15 victory for the visitors suggests Birkmyre will enjoy this season more than last.

The other team to come down from West 2 were Waysider Drumpellier and they had a tough challenge with a visit to last seasons title challengers Glasgow Uni Medics. It ended up with a comfortable 51-15 win for the Medics, so of the two Clubs relegated from West 2, it’s Birkmyre who will be looking at the coming season with a bit more confidence.

The Medics welcome Cowal next week in Round 1, scheduled for 7pm on Friday night, whilst in the other ties, Shawlands travel to Moffat, whilst Birkmyre are due to host Lanark, though this fixture is not shown on the SRU website, so it may be that Lanark have now withdrawn from the Bowl as well as the league.

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Photo Libraries:
Cumbernauld v Wigtownshire
Allan Glens v Garnock
Cambuslang v Annan