Douglas Rugby Club travel to Cheshire this weekend to face Bowdon in Regional Two North West on Saturday afternoon.

While the Manx team is ahead 9-3 in six years of head-to-heads since 1999 when the clubs first crossed swords in South Lancashire/Cheshire Division Two, this one is still hard to call.

Last season was the second occasion Douglas recorded a home and away double on Bowdon and, despite current league positions of fifth (Bowdon) and 10th, a couple of Douglas changes cloud the question further.

The line-out horrors of last week will certainly have focussed the training drills, Guy Wood and Blake Snell are in a race to recover from injury, and Owen Carvin and Dave Sherwin are unavailable which may give Stephan De Beer a first start after his successful appearance off the bench against Birkenhead Park.

Bradley Browmar had to kick his heels on the touchline last Saturday and will be suitably fired up on his Douglas debut, and Phil Cringle may well cover Carvin’s absence if Ralph Clarke is still celebrating the birth of a daughter.

Harry Hewson’s return is imminent, as is Seth Waterworth’s, and if work schedules fall in favour, Niall Killey and Craig McGee’s inclusion would certainly tip the scales toward Douglas.

Douglas squad from: Rob Todd (captain), Phil Cringle, Ralph Clarke, Liam Kirkpatrick, Conor Garland, John Dutnall, Sean Garland, Kyle Martin, Luke Hyland, Max Morley-Green, Jack Shimmin, Charlie Henthorn, Bradley Browmar, Harry Hewson, Sam McCord, Seth Waterworth, Aidan O’Shea, Brendan Kelly, Craig McGee, Niall Killey, Guy Wood, Blake Snell.