West Region Rugby - Scotland: West 2 Update

West 2 league leaders Lenzies trip to Glencruiten against 3rd place Oban on Saturday had the makings of a proper title ding dong, whilst 2nd placed Uddingston made the short trip south to 4th place Strathaven. Wins for Oban and Uddy could see the gap close to 8 points with Uddy having a game in hand, and a Lenzie visit to Uddingston due this weekend, meant that things could look very interesting come close of business on Saturday night.

West Results - 5th January 2019

However, defeats for both Uddy and Oban gives us a bit of a title challenge anti-climax - not that Lenzie will be complaining. The West 1 title contest looks to be going down to the wire, but in West 2, it's now a case of working out when we can mathematically name Lenzie as champions.

It was a comfortable 40 points to 8 victory for Lenzie, whilst Uddy suffered a 53-7 defeat at Strathaven, their biggest defeat of the season. Things didn't look too bad at half time for Uddingston with a 10-7 deficit on the scoreboard, but it looks like a Xmas hangover got in the way of a title challenging second half performance.

With nine games remaining, unbeaten Lenzie are now 18 points ahead of Uddingston, they're scoring loads of points and have conceded only 84 in 13 games. Uddy and Lenzie face each other this weekend, which is now a must win for Uddy if they have any ambition of catching the Champions elect. In-fact, every game is now a must win for Uddingston - awkward as the Lenzie game is then followed by a trip to Oban.

Strathavens win puts them just four behind Oban, so they have a 3rd place finish in their sight, and perhaps even 2nd.

Despite their loss, Clydebank remain in fifth due to Wigtownshires home game against Cumbernauld being off. Cumbie were unable to raise a team, and have had a three point deduction awarded already. This puts Cumbernauld at the foot of the table, but we're not sure if this is a true reflection of the situation, as Millbrae do not appear to have had a points deduction for their non-fulfillment at Helensburgh on 8th December.

Paisley move to within two points of Shire following their 14-7 home win against Bishopton, and puts them two points ahead of Bishopton.

Helensburghs impressive win at Whitecrooks over 5th placed Clydebank sends a warning to the rest of the Clubs in the mid-table restructuring relegation battle. With four teams expected to go down to West 3 at the end of the season, this result leaves Helensburgh only 9 points behind Clydebank, so means the mid-table group are all still at risk of relegation. And if HillJills don't start picking up a few results in National 3, we could see five Clubs down from West 2.

In the other West 2 game, Millbrae did the double over Loch Lomond with a one point victory at Dillichip. Lomond now find themselves three points behind Helensburgh and six behind Bishopton, but they have played three games more. It will be a tough ask for Lomond to avoid relegation, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

The West 2 title battle may be nearing a conclusion, but the relegation contest is still very much alive.

In this weekends fixtures we have Uddingston hosting league leaders Lenzie. Until the weekend, Uddys defence had been pretty solid, so a 2nd v 1st contest could be expected to be a close one, but it was a big loss against Strathaven. It should still be close, but all the pressure is now on Uddy, as a result, we're going with a Lenzie win.

Oban will be looking to get back on track when they visit Loch Lomond. If they can get the ball wide to their back three, we'd expect a win for Oban, but if it becomes a forwards arm-wrestle, then it could either way. We'll go away win, but wouldn't put much on it.

If Lomond do take a win against Oban, then Strathaven can move onto the same points as Oban with a win at Bishopton. It will be a tough game for Bishopton as they've struggled in the last few rounds of games, but when they met earlier in the season, it was Bishopton who took the points with a 20 points to 13 win. We're going with an away win on this one.

Clydebank will be looking to get themselves closer to safety on their trip to Millbrae. Most of Millbraes home games have been pretty tight this season, with the only big scoreline coming in a loss against Uddy. They've had two home wins and two defeats by only two points, which suggests this weekend won't be high scoring either. We'll go with a Clydebank win, but won't be surprised if it's not.

Uddingston v Lenzie might look like game of the day, but Wigtownshires visit to Helensburgh can't be far behind in terms of importance. A win for Helensburgh could see them move up another couple of places, and possbily only two points behind Shire. A win for Shire and they could be 12 points ahead of Helensburgh and that fourth relegation spot. Based on the strength of their weekends win at Clydebank, we're going with a home win.

In the final game of the weekend Cumbernauld welcome Paisley. Paisley had a slow start to the season, but in the last four rounds of games they've had two win and two draws. They also had a comfortable 30 points to 3 victory over Cumbernauld when they met earlier in the season. We've got this one down as an away win.