West Region Rugby - Scotland: West League Update

We had a great fixture list across the West Regional leagues on Saturday, with plenty of contests pitting title contenders against one another.

At the Bearyard, 3rd place Glens welcomed league leaders Greenock Wanderers, in a battle between two Clubs who until 3pm on Saturday were unbeaten. Greenock maintained not only their winning record with a 32-50 victory but also added another bonus point to their tally, with Glens also picking up a four-try bonus.

We also had 2nd playing 5th as Annan welcomed East Kilbride, and again it was the visitors who took the points (20-36). This win puts EK into second, five behind Greenock and a point ahead of both Glens and Annan.

Irvine fell one place to fifth following a 32-29 defeat at Cambuslang, they did pick up a couple of bonus points though. Irvine will be looking to recover from this defeat when they welcome Garnock this weekend, but it won't be an easy task as Garnock picked up their second win of the season which keeps them on the same points as Cambuslang (two behind Irvine).

Round 4 of fixtures is now complete, so it's time to take a first shot at picking a league winner. The weekends results put Greenock as early favourites, but they've only played one of their main challengers to date, so they've got plenty of work still do even just in the first half of the season.

Garnocks victory was away at Dalziel (21-49) who now find themselves in 10th, having won only one from four. Dalziel no doubt had ambitions of winning promotion straight back to the National Leagues but they are already separated from the title contenders (15 points behind Greenock). They won't be closing the gap on the leaders this weekend as they have their Shield quarter-final game against West 2 opposition. They may be hoping for a game that gets them to back to winning ways, but things aren't going to easy for them as they have a trip to Oban who are the unbeaten joint leaders of West 2.

Strathendrick picked up a 22-7 victory at Kilmarnock which keeps them in 8th place, now 8 points ahead of Kilmarnock who are at the foot of the table without a win. Perhaps most worrying for Kilmarnock is that they've not yet played any of the top four. Kilmarnock are also on Shield duty this weekend when they visit West 2s Clydebank. Clydebank had another big win at the weekend, so again no easy task - they've scored 70 points in the last two games whilst moving up to fifth.

Stewartry got themselves off the foot of the table thanks to a 45-20 victory over 10th place Cumnock. This moves Stewartry up one place and a point behind both Dalziel and Cumnock. Stewartry have a tough game on Saturday with a trip to Cambuslang on league business, whilst Cumnock welcome East Kilbride. It will be tough for either of the relegation contenders to pick up a win, but with things being tight at the foot, bonus points could make a big difference.

East Kilbride are the only of the top four with a league game, as Greenock welcome Strathendrick in the Shield quarter-final and Glens have a derby quarter-final against Lenzie. Annan have the weekend off.

West 2:
We still have two Clubs with 100% records sitting at the top of West with Lenzie and Oban Lorne both on 20 points from four games.

Lenzie had a big 43-8 win against Paisley who are struggling to match last seasons title challenging campaign, whilst Oban won 31-17 on the road at Strathaven. Lenzie sit top on points difference, 147 compared to Obans 73. They’re both scoring plenty of points, but Lenzie have conceded only 29 points in their four games - pretty decent.

Prior to Saturday, Bishopton were also unbeaten, but they lost that record as Clydebank beat them 33-17. Bishopton drop to fourth, with Clydebank only one point behind. Uddingston recovered from the previous week's defeat with a comfortable 46-17 victory over Wigtownshire, moving them one point ahead of Bishopton and into third.

There's only six points between 1st and 5th, so it should be competitive at the top, but we did say we'd make a pick on title challengers after week four, so here's goes. For us it's between Lenzie and Oban, with Lenzie as slight favourites as they're conceding fewer points. October’s going to be a biggie though as we have loads of fixtures that could alter things quite significantly. On the 6th, Oban visit Lenzie and the following week Lenzie host third-place Uddingston. The week after Uddy visit Oban whilst Lenzie visit fourth-place Bishopton. Very quickly we could see a significantly different league table.

It's the Shield quarter-finals this weekend, with Lenzie, Oban and Clydebank each hosting West 1 opposition - Lenzie welcoming Glens in a derby, Oban hosting Dalziel and Clydebank hosting Kilmarnock. There's a decent chance we'll have at least two West 2 Clubs in the Shield semi-finals.

In the league this weekend, we have Uddy visiting Paisley and Bishopton visiting Wigtownshire, which should be two interesting ties as both hosts are looking to get themselves away from the foot of the table - Paisley are 9th and Shire 10th.

Cumbernauld were scheduled to host Loch Lomond on Saturday but Lomond were unable to field a team so have been deducted 3 points. This is the second week running where Cumbernauld's game has not been fulfilled by the opposition - what with rescheduled games for the Autumn Tests, Cumbernauld are already playing till 13th April. Fingers crossed for a decent winter, else we could see West 2 struggling to fit all the games in again.

The final game of the weekend saw Helensburgh visiting Millbrae with both Clubs looking for their first league win. It looks like it was a tight contest with the visitors taking it 29-26. This result pushes Helensburgh up to 7th, whilst Millbrae swap places with Lomond at the foot.

West 3:

The big game in West 3 saw leaders Lochaber visit Coatbridge to take on 3rd place Waysiders Drumpellier - both were unbeaten, so it was set to be a tight contest.

First half was pretty even, with Lochaber probably having the better of the early encounters as WD made several handling errors. However, Lochaber only reward was a try and conversion. WD stuck to it though and focussed on going through the phases which brought put them in the position to score three tries in the first half. To add to their challenge, Lochaber played the latter stages of the half with 14 as they'd only had one sub and but picked up a couple of injuries.

WD took full advantage in the second half, cutting out the errors of the first 40 and continuing to go through phases whilst also opening up out wide in the backs to score another four tries. It was a powerful second-half display for WD, giving them a 41-10 victory, moving them to the top of the table and installing them as our early season favourites for the title (match video).

WD may for the timebeing be our favourites for the title, but they won't get it all their own way. Lochaber look handy in both forwards and backs, so will pose WD some difficulty in the return trip and Cowal are still also unbeaten. Cowal have looked decent in the couple of games we've seen them in this season and they have also beaten Glasgow Uni Medics who both WD and Lochaber have still to play. If the Medics can keep a consistent team throughout the season, then they too will fancy a shot at the title.

Mull moved up to fourth with a win (even though they were short of players) away at Birkmyre. Birkmyre are down to seventh having won only one game from three.

Police Scotland move up to fifth with a big win against Moffat. The 61-19 result significantly improves their points difference, whilst leaving winless Moffat stuck at the foot of the table.

In the final game of the weekend, Shawlands welcomed Hyndland. Both were without a win in the league so it was a chance to kick-start their campaign. It was Shawlands who took the victory moving them up to 8th.

It's Bowl semi-final day on Saturday so there's a limited card of league fixtures. The top two are however in league action with WD hosting Hyndland and Lochaber with the more difficult game against PSG who had that big win last weekend. In the other game Cowal travel to Moffat, where a win for the visitors will see them move up to third.

In the Bowl semi-final games we have a repeat of one of last weeks ties when Mull visit Birkmyre and in the other the Uni Medics welcome Shawlands.