Getting an Isle of Man representative team for rugby has been tricky for some years now.

The advent of the English Clubs Championship (formerly The Courage Leagues) has left little time to fit in fixtures let alone training.

Plus of course, similar to the round ball game with the FA, the Isle of Man clubs are part of the English Rugby Football Union.

Membership has benefits, in terms of funding and support from the RFU but no room for the representative game.

There was a brief flash in the early 2000s when an annual game between the Isle of Man and Jersey took place for the Wilkes Trophy put up by then Jersey Governor Sir Michael Wilkes, but that floundered after a couple of iterations, mainly because of travelling costs.

This season, however, Isle of Man rugby development officer Kris Hattam has got the ball rolling again.

The players have gotten behind his initiative and this weekend two squads travel for friendly fixtures against Warrington.

The Isle of Man will play Warrington at 3pm and, as a curtain-raiser, an Isle of Man second team, which will be called Ellan Vannin, will play Warrington’s second team at 1pm.

Douglas’ Liam Kirkpatrick will lead the Isle of Man team with Ramsey’s Josh Corteen skippering Ellan Vannin.

Warrington have just been promoted from Counties One ADM Lancashire/Cheshire and next season will play alongside Douglas in the North West Two Division and should be a good test for the two Manx sides who have been training for a few months now.

Where the fixtures might lead is a different story, but for now the island’s rugby community will celebrate the initiative.

Fixtures: Saturday, May 16

At Warrington

Warrington 2nd XV v Ellan Vannin ko 1pm

Warrington v Isle of Man ko 3pm