West Region Rugby - Scotland: West 1 Update

Despite their 30-28 defeat at Fort Matilda, East Kilbride picked up a couple of bonus points which keeps them five points ahead of Glens who won 45-20 against Kilmarnock. Garnocks 73-38 win at Cambuslang (17 tries scored between them) keeps them a couple of points behind Glens, with Greenock another four points off the pace.

West Results - 16th February 2019

If the challengers win their games in hand, we'd see Glens at the top of the table and Greenock in second but we won't be banking on that being the way things pan out come the end of the campaign. This weekend, Glens host Garnock, whilst in a few weeks EK host Garnock, and the final game of the season has Glens visiting Greenock. So plenty of action amongst the contenders, but that's not the end of it, as Greenock have Irvine still to play home and away.

This is going to be tight, and could come down to bonus points, or perhaps who knows, even points difference.

There's a bit of a gap between the top four and the mid table contest, and on Saturday it was Irvine who gained the upper hand in that one with a 34-24 win at Annan (there's a video on Facebook with a good looking try off the back of a scrum for Irvine which if we can find it again we'll share the link).

The result mean Irvine move ahead of Annan, and with Stewartry winning 26-5 against Dalziel, they move to just a point behind Annan. Stewartry however have only one game remaining (Garnock away), so it's not looking likely they'll manage to finish in sixth spot.

At the foot of the table, both Dalziel and Cumnock lost, with neither picking up a bonus point. Strathendrick's victory at Cumnock means they move ahead of Cambuslang on points difference.

We still don't know how many will be relegated at the end of the season, but the weekends defeat makes it more likely that Dalziel will be one of those going down.

If Clubs agee to keep the leagues at 12 teams for next season, then it will probably be two down (unless Hillhead Jordanhill manage to avoid relegation from National 3) with Cumnock currently in that second drop spot. They're 12 behind Cambuslang, but they do have five games in hand on Cambus (who have only one game remaining - Strathendrick, away).

If on the other hand, Clubs agree to move to leagues of 10, as they said they wanted to before season opened, then it's still two down, but with the possibility of three if Hillhead Jordanhill do get relegated from National 3 - and three down would then bring Strathendrick back into contention in the relegation battle.

This weekends big game in West 1 is at the Bearyards between Allan Glens and Garnock - this should be a cracker. Both are scoring loads of points, whilst also being pretty mean defensively - but Garnock did concede 38 against Cambuslang on Saturday, which is the biggest score against them in the league this season. For this weeks Predictor Challenge, we're going with home advantage being the difference, but with a 3pm kick-off scheduled (Scotland kick off at 2:15 in Paris), we're not sure how many folk will be on the sidelines.

We're anticipating that Cumnock v Greenock will be a bonus point win for Greenock, which will see them close the gap on EK, and possibly also both Glens and Garnock.

In the final West 1 game of the weekend, we have Strathendrick hosting Dalziel. A win for Endrick probably moves them to within a couple of points of safety. Whilst a win for Dalziel will keep their ever so slim chance of avoiding relegation alive. We'll go with an Endrick win, but it could be close.

You can submit your entry to this weeks Predictor Challenge here.