West League Update - 17th November 2019

An interesting set of results at the weekend that keeps each of the West Regional leagues campaigns bubbling away just nicely.  There may be plenty of folk with little interest about what goes on in our part of the Scottish rugby playing community, but you know what, for the past few seasons, and again this time round, we have perhaps the most competitive leagues in the country.

West Regional Results

West 1:

Prior to the weekend, Allan Glens had won 6 from 6, conceding only 60 points, scoring 265 points and picking up a try bonus points from each of the games.  Garnock were 12 points behinds, having already lost one this season but they did have a game in hand.  They had only conceded 75 points in their five games, but only managed to score 102.  The stats suggested a Glens win, the Predictor entrants had it down for a Glens win (91% selected them), yet Garnock weren't for keeping to the script.

Following things on twitter, Glens were leading 10-3 at half time (or so we thought), and it wasn't until another few scores that it became clear that it was Garnock who were leading. Glens retook the lead with a penalty try, before Garnock claimed a 20 points to 16 win with a try and conversion.

The West 1 Championship battle just got blown wide open.

New leaders of West 1 are the youngsters from Kilmarnock who won away at Stewartry in the third v second battle - just.  It was 15 - 11, so no try bonus point for either, but enough to give Kilmarnock a three point lead over Glens.

The loss for Stewartry means they drop to fourth with Lenzie winning away at Irvine.

Glens are three behind Kilmarnock, but have two games in hand.  Lenzie are eight points behind Kilmarnock and one game in hand, with Stewartry another point behind.

But this doesn't tell us the full story as East Kilbride and Garnock (in fifth and sixth) are still in this title race as they have lost just one a piece, though have fewer bonus points.

We're approaching the half way point in the Championship, and it's a six horse race.


Annan won the battle against Strathendrick giving them a bit of breathing space ahead of the bottom three, where we have three points seperating Irvine, Endrick and Cambuslang - Annan are five points further ahead.

It's game on in the Championship battle and in the relegation battle.

The big game next weekend has East Kilbride visiting Kilmarnock, and the weekend after we have Kilmarnock visiting Glens and Garnock visiting Lenzie.  Great stuff.

West 2:

There's perhaps not as many Clubs involved in the West 2 Championship battle, but it's still pretty compelling stuff. 

Strathaven continue to set the pace in West 2 following a tight win (guessing tighter than the Predictor entrants expected) against Wigtownshire, but unbeaten Dalziel are only three points behind following their win over Oban Lorne.

We made the trip to Dalziel Park expecting some open flowing rugby and plenty of tries - Dalziel having scored 233 points in 6 games and Oban 297, sharing 10 try bonus points between them.  Whilst we got plenty of open flowing rugby with quick ball from the breakdown, both defences were awesome with try scoring opportunities kept to an absolute minimum.  Dalziel had the better of the scrums and line-outs, earning a number of penalties from scrums, which they accepted and kept the scoreboard ticking over.



At the end of the day, there's not much between them, but Dalziel took the points on offer and come away with a 15 nil victory and the four points. So three point behind Strathaven, but Dalziel have a game in hand.

Cumnock drop to 3rd with their game being off, but they're only 6 points behind. 

In the leagues only other game, Paisley move up to fourth with a narrow 10 - 8 win over Clydebank.


At the foot of the table, Uddingston are still in negative territory, but with Helensburgh being unable to raise a team to travel to Cumnock, they'll have a three point deduction coming their way to close that gap.

The next few weeks could be crucial in the Championship battle - this week we have second place Dalziel travelling to third place Cumnock for the leagues game of the day, and the weekend after Cumnock make the trip to Strathaven.  Come the end of the month, things could look a little different.

The same could also be said in battle at the foot of the table as Helensburgh are due to face top and fourth placed teams in the next fortnight, whilst Uddingston are away at Clydebank and at home to Wigtownshire - certainly no gimmes, but opportunities perhaps to pick up some points if they can get their stuff together.

West 3:

Ok, so we're excited by the competition in West 1 whilst the battle in West 2 is intriguing too, so how should we describe the West 3 Conferences - how's about it's just awesome; what a great competition the West 3 campaign is turning into.

This weekend we had 4 from 6 games where lose bonus points were earned, where the winning margins in these games were 3, 1, 6 and 6 - and judging by what we've read, a few of these went down to the last few minutes of the game.

The top two in Conference 1 clashed at Lochaber with Loch Lomond winning by a point, which puts Lomand six points clear at the top of the table.  Cumbernauld in third place missed an opportunity to get back into contention for a play-off place when they went down to a last minute penalty kick against Hyndland, losing 16 - 13.  The win puts Hyndland onto the same points as Cumbernauld.

In Conference 2, things are decidely less clear cut.

Birkmyre had a big win against Lanark, whilst Uni Medics won by 6 points at Mull.  All of which leaves us with three Clubs on 31 points (Birkmyre, Mull and Uni Medics) - Birkmyre have it on points difference, but Uni Medics have a game in hand.

Bishopton (in fourth) picked up a try bonus point win at Shawlands - that was another tight one at 28 - 22, but it's enough to mean that Bish are only 6 points behind top spot.

The next couple of weeks worth of fixtures across West 1 and 2 make for interesting reading, and West 3 are not to be excluded from that.

Uni Medics v Lochaber and Mull v Loch Lomond this weekend, and then the weekend after it's Birkmyre who travel to Uni Medics, and Mull make the trip to Bishopton.  Some great contests to motivate you to get down to your local Club.

We're being told that as our media are not covering the Club game in Scotland, then the Clubs should become the media, so tell you what folks, start talking up our game in your local press and across social media, cause what we have on offer across the West Regional leagues is intriguing stuff, and next weekends fixtures will keep the excitement flowing.

West Womens Results
Under 18 Results 

Photo Gallery:

East Kilbride v Cambuslang
Shawlands v Bishopton  
Strathaven v Wigtownshire

Previous West Region Updates:

11th November
27th October
19th October