West Region Rugby - Scotland: West League Update (West 1)

Only four games on Saturday in West 1, which allowed Allan Glens to open up the gap to their nearest challengers following a comfortable win against Dalziel.

At 84-17, the Glens result not only widens the gap to second by another point (EK didn’t have a game), but it also boosts their points difference advantage.

Garnock jump from fourth to second thanks to a 34-14 win away at Stewartry. This leaves them four points behind leaders Glens. East Kilbride are another four points behind, but they have a game in hand on both Glens and Garnock.

West Results - 10th November 2018

A bonus point win for Annan doesn’t lead to a change of position, but it puts them five points ahead of Irvine, whilst closing the gap on Greenock Wanderers, and fourth place, to just three points.

It’s Shield semi-finals this weekend, so of the leaders it's only East Kilbride who are on league business this Saturday, travelling 10 minutes up the road for a derby game against Cambuslang.

Cambuslang have now reached the mid-point of their season with four wins and a draw, along with 6 bonus points. They lost at home on Saturday to Strathendrick despite nearly 75% of entrants to the Predictor Challenge having them down for the win. They have been a bit up and down this season with recent results not going their way, so we’d expect a win for East Kilbride. However, EKs recent loss at Irvine should be a reminder not to take their eye off the ball as Cambuslang showed they are capable of taking points of league challengers with a draw against Annan about a month ago.

Stewartry have also played half of their league games, also with four wins. By virtue of their draw, Cambuslang are ahead in the table, but only by a point due to Stewartry having gained a bonus point more. Both are well clear of Dalziel, but they need to be keeping an eye on the next batch of Clubs, Strathendrick, Kilmarnock and Cumnock, who each have a game in hand. We’re not clear on how many will be relegated from West 1 to 2 to make way for next seasons leagues of 10, but if West 2 winners get promoted, that would suggest a possible three down from West 1 (depending on what happens in National 3).

Both Strathendrick and Kilmarnock closed that gap on Cambuslang and Stewartry on Saturday, try bonus point win for Endrick against Cambuslang, whilst Kilmarnock picked up both a lose and try bonus point away at Annan when they went down 27-22.

Stewartry host Endrick this Saturday which could see Endrick move onto the same points as their hosts if they pick up a bonus point win. This looks like being a close contest on Saturday, both have four wins – Stewartry have a points difference of -72 and Endrick -83, so there’s not much between them, though Stewartry are scoring more but also conceding more. To close to call, so we’re going to go with home advantage being the difference.

League restructuring should keep the second half of the season very competitive at the foot of the table.

So only two games in the league this Saturday, but we do also have a couple of cracking looking matches in the West Shield semi-finals.

In the first we have two of the league challengers facing each other with Glens welcome Greenock. When the two met in September at the Bearyards on league duty, it was Greenock who took the win 50-32. At that point, Greenock were top and Glens were in third. However in recent weeks Greenocks results have dipped a bit which means they now sit in fourth, whilst it’s Glens who are top. We’ll go with recent form and a win for Glens, but won’t be surprised if it’s Greenock who make it to the final at Scotstoun on 8th December.

The first semi-final is between two of the Clubs at the top of the table, whilst the second is between two towards the foot with Dalziel welcoming Kilmarnock.

In the league, Kilmarnock have two wins, and Dalziel one. They have scored a similar number of points, but Dalziel are conceding, on average, an extra 14 points a game. In the previous round both had good wins against teams who are going well in West 2, Kilmarnock winning 48 nil at Clydebank and Dalziel winning a tighter contest at Oban 19-10, remember that cheeky drop-goal from 6 yards out (that’s now been featured on RugbyDump with the suggestion that it could be a record for the closest drop goal in a competitive match).

Kilmarnock are currently the team showing a bit more form, so we’re going for them to win this one, but it’s no foregone conclusion – a win for Dalziel would act as a confidence booster which could kick-start a run in the league.

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