Vagabonds took the spoils at Ballafletcher in a Manx Trophy game that pretty much had everything on Saturday.

There were seven tries, five lead changes, four yellow cards and Ryan de la Harpe’s 79th-minute drop goal to give his side a 28-27 victory against Ramsey.

Vagas set out their stall early on with their powerful front five dominating the set scrummage. They turned Ramsey over in their own 22 with only five minutes gone when Ross McCulloch crashed into the visitors’ line and the ball was recycled quickly to former Ramsey man Mark Oldfield who went over for the opening try.

Some resilient Ramsey defending and inaccurate Vagabonds passing left the scoreboard untroubled until the 17th minute.

A Vagas attack broke down in the Ramsey 22 and Matt Meechan recovered the ball for the away side before spotting an attacking opportunity on the left.

Meechan accelerated out of the danger area and found Ramsey pace man Danny Howard in space on the left wing who lit up the afterburners and raced in from 50 metres to level the score at 5-5.

As the half-hour approached, Vagas seized the game by the scruff of its neck and an attacking scrum deep in the Ramsey half gave them the springboard.

As the Ramsey eight retreated, de la Harpe found a charging McCulloch and he smashed over the Ramsey line to score before Cam Findlay converted.

Dan Richmond temporarily reduced the deficit with a penalty at the other end but that was short-lived when Findlay did likewise for Vagas and, as half-time approached, Vagas led 15-8.

There was, however, just enough time left for one final Vagas attack and they used a tried and trusted route to break the Ramsey defence.

A powerful scrummage followed by a de la Harpe/McCulloch combination in midfield sent the latter through the Ramsey defence. This time McCulloch was halted but the ball was recycled quickly and wing Jon Reilly went in for the score. Findlay converted to leave Vagas 22-8 in front at the interval.

Eight minutes into the second half, the game exploded into life. The kickstarter was Howard’s second try of the game at the end of a neat Ramsey back move. As he was scoring, the two full backs Findlay and Connor Casey were involved in an off-the-ball scuffle.

When referee Chris Till finally restored order, the two number 15s were shown yellow cards as was Vagas’ de la Harpe which left 14 against 13. Richmond converted Howard’s try to put Ramsey within a score at 22-15.

In the yellow card period, the northerners picked up another try when a quickly-tapped free-kick sent former Vagabond Peter Frankwick clear and his try brought Ramsey to within two points.

With a little over one hour played, Ramsey had their own discipline problem when Meechan picked up a yellow card after some argy-bargy on the side of a ruck and Findlay knocked over the ensuing penalty to extend the lead to five points.

This lead lasted only three minutes though. Despite being a man down, Ramsey whipped the ball upfield and, from the base of ruck in the shadow of the Vagas posts, Richmond sneaked over from close range to level the game at 25-25. He then converted his own try to give Ramsey a slender lead with 15 minutes remaining.

Vagas responded by throwing everything into attack. De la Harpe was almost in but just couldn’t quite gather his own chip, before Findlay then had a penalty shot which drifted wide and nothing seemed to be working for them.

As the time ticked away, it looked like Ramsey were just going to hold on for a bonus point win but, as the game drifted into its final minute, de la Harpe dropped deep behind an attacking ruck and delivered the winning drop goal to give Vagas the points with Ramsey picking up two useful bonus points.

In the other Trophy game, Douglas North maintained their position at the top of the table with a 57-52 win against fellow Port-e-Chee outfit Douglas South - see separate report.

In the Manx Bowl, Emerging Nomads made it two from two when they beat Ramsey B 37-5 at the Field of Dreams.

Orry Watterson ran in two for Nomads, with other tries coming from Sami Benbatoul, Mike Quayle, Ben Fry, Keiran Maddrell and Ari Brooks-Lund, who also kicked one conversion.

Peter Crowe marked his Ramsey debut with their solitary try which was converted by Ben Harding.

Vagabonds Hornets also made it two from two at QEII when they beat Western Vikings 69-14.

Arno Cruywagen bagged a hat-trick for Vagas, as did Tom Gascoyne while Ben Swindlehurst got two and there were also tries from skipper Dylan Chambers, Kieran Moore and Tom Rowley.

Rowley also kicked four conversions, Gascoyne two and one from Johnny Beckley.

In the final Bowl game, Castletown beat Vagabonds Ladies 101-56 at Ballafletcher in a try-fest of a tag match.

Adam Creamore and Jim Emmett ran in 13 tries between them, while Marco Santos got two and there were also scores from Rob Bell, Morgan Armstrong-Paton, Peter Martin, Connor Coulthard and Kunal Patel.

Allana Pritchard ran in three for the women, with Leona McGovern picking up two and Lauren Ellison, Nat Bush, Becky Dunne, Amber Carridge, Jules Harrison and Kirsty Mac all getting one apiece.

Sammie Macdonald and Jules Harrison added three conversions between them.

Results from Saturday, October 17:

Manx Trophy

Vagabonds 28-27 Ramsey

Douglas South 52-57 Douglas North

Manx Bowl

Western Vikings 14-69

Vagabonds Hornets

Emerging Nomads 37-5 Ramsey B

Vagabonds Ladies 56-101 Castletown