The Hartford Homes Manx Cup will take pride of place in the Port-e-Chee trophy cabinet after Douglas Celts beat Southern Nomads 43-5 in the final on Saturday.

Douglas led 12-5 at half-time but turned on the power in the second half and raced clear.

On paper Douglas looked to have the edge up front and that quickly turned to reality, with the Celts’ front five turning the screw from the first scrum.

As 10 minutes approached, they got their first chance with an attacking five-metre scrum.

As the ball came in, the big diesels roared into life and shunted Nomads back over their own try line to leave skipper Percy Hampton with a simple touchdown. Craig Martin added the extras for a 7-0 lead.

Just after the quarter-hour mark, Nomads hit back. Shaun Christian punted downfield and chased his kick hard. He got underneath the ball and managed to win it back.

George Callister, Mark Young and Finn McGregor fired off passes to get the ball wide to the opposite wing where Mikey Craine had a half gap and needed no second invitation to dive in and reduce the lead to 7-5.

Midway through the half, Douglas extended their advantage. A big nudge in a midfield scrum gave them some momentum. At the following ruck number eight Alfie Howard scooped the ball up and broke from the base.

His power took him past the first tackler and once he got in behind, he stretched his legs and outpaced the cover to score. This gave Douglas a 12-5 lead which they held until the break.

Four minutes into the second half, the Port-e-Chee outfit got the breakthrough they were looking for.

Nomads thumped a kick downfield from inside their own 22. Craig McGee fielded for Douglas at full pace and he returned the kick via route one, setting up field position pretty close to where the kick was taken.

The ball was quickly moved to the left wing where Lewin Scarffe benefitted from an overlap. Craig Martin’s conversion was good too.

From the restart, Douglas were in again as Percy Hampton picked a pinpoint line to slice through the defence and score under the posts. Martin again converted and Nomads suddenly trailed 26-5.

Any remaining doubts were cast aside 10 minutes later when replacement wing Sam Clarke powered through two tackles and at full stretch just got the ball down to make it 31-5, which soon became 33-5 when Martin added another conversion.

Nomads then emptied their bench for the final 20 minutes and, although they made inroads, the breaks they needed never came, with knock-ons and other errors all happening at the crucial stages.

Pushing forward can of course leave a side vulnerable to counterattack and in the closing two minutes Nomads leaked two more tries.

Wilf Kermode picked up the first with a break down the right wing and Craig McGee picked up the second from a close-range driving maul.

The win gives Douglas Celts a rare Cup and Shield double.

- A report from the Hartford Homes Manx Plate final will appear in this week’s edition of the Manx Independent, on sale Thursday morning.