West League Update (West 2) - 15th October 2018

The weekends results means it’s even tighter at the top of West 2 than it is in West 1.

The weekends big game saw Lenzie scrape a win at home against Uddingston (the cumulative Predictor entries had this one down as a comfortable win for Lenzie).  What we learnt was that where both Clubs had scored loads of points to date, this weekend they demonstrated their defences are pretty solid too.  The game never really had much in the way of flow and could have gone either way, but Lenzie took it 12 points to 6.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the game was that this is the first time we’ve seen the referee allow an HIA at regional level.  It was queried by the Lenzie players when the player came back on, but the ref was satisfied that he had checked on the players welfare at half-time.

Lenzie move to the top of the table, with Uddy a couple of points behind.  Oban remain in third following their 35 - 12 win against Loch Lomond.  In picking up a bonus point, they close the gap on the top place to two points.

The cumulative Predictor had Strathaven as slight favourites against Bishopton, but a 20 points 13 win for Bish keeps them in fourth place and Strathaven in sixth.

The top four are separated by only 6 points, and guess what, they’re in opposition to each other this week, which makes things really interesting.

Despite their game against being off (Millbrae unable to raise a team), Clydebank remain in fifth with Wigtownshire up to to seventh courtesy of their tightly fought how win over Helensburgh (14-10) - somewhat closer than the Predictor had it.

Strathaven, Wigtownshire and Helensburgh are all on 14 points, with Paisley another two behind with their 30 points to 3 win over Cumbernauld, keeping them in ninth place.

At the foot, Millbrae have received a five point deduction for not fulfilling their game against Clydebank, so swap places again with Loch Lomond.

Predictor:
At the top, we have fourth placed Bishopton hosting leaders Lenzie, and Uddy hosting Oban Lorne (2nd v 3rd).

Lenzie are the only unbeaten team in the league, having scored 215 whilst conceding only 59.  But we’re getting to that stage in the season where the strength of the squad is becoming increasingly important, and added to that, a week of rain will have softened up the pitches so making a running game more difficult.  We’ll go with an away win in this one.

Uddy v Oban sees both team scoring loads of points whilst not conceding many.  It could be high scoring, but that’s what we thought about the Lenzie v Uddy game.  We’ll go for it being close (high scoring or not), and Uddy making the most of the home advantage.

Clydebank travel to Loch Lomond who are still looking for their first league win. This one should see Clydebank adding to their win total, but the softer pitches will start to play to Lomonds traditional strength in the forwards.  Clydebank should have enough in this one, but we’ll not be surprised to see Lomond starting to pick a few more points over the coming weeks.

Millbrae have been struggling with playing numbers recently, but it’s been away games that have been the issue, so a home tie against Wigtownshire should hopefully not be an issue.  Shire have now won three in a row, and two of their four defeats have been to the top two Clubs.  Shire should have too much for Millbrae.

In the remaining two games we have 7th hosting 9th, and 10th hosting 8th.  Helensburgh & Paisley have similar sorts of league stats, with only bonus points separating them.  Helensburghs last two defeats have been by only four and five points, whilst Paisley lost to Bishopton by 7 points and Uddingston by three points. Not a lot between the two of them, so we’re going with home advantage.

We watched Strathaven the other week against Uddy and struggle to understand why they’ve only won two games from six.  They look aggressive at the breakdown and dynamic with a willingness to attack, so feel they’ve got wins in them.  Cumbernauld have only played four games so far, but are struggling to score points - only 46.  This looks like an away win.

Submit you own Predictions for this weeks Challenge

West League Updates - 15th October 2018
   West 1 Update 

   West 3 Update

Photo Galleries:
Wigtownshire v Helensburgh
Oban Lorne v Loch Lomond
Paisley v Cumbernauld
Strathaven v Bishopton

Note:
Updated 16/10/2018 as SRU league table showing Strathaven point total incorrectly. League table removed & redrafted.