Wth the Manx Cup up and running, this Saturday sees the start of the Ravenscroft Manx Plate rugby competition.

The tournament will be played on a home and away round-robin basis and, at the conclusion of the league phase, first will play fourth and second will face third in the semi-finals with the final pencilled in for May 7.

This week the opening round sees a virtual repeat of the closing games in the Manx Bowl a fortnight ago.

Ramsey B will face Emerging Nomads at Mooragh Park while Vagabonds Hornets will face Western Vikings at Ballafletcher.

Ramsey beat Nomads 48-22 two weeks ago but actually led 36-5 at half-time, with Nomads sneaking the second half 17-12.

That result will give both sides some encouragement going into this weekend.

Neil Hulme’s Ramsey side have already taken the Manx Bowl this season and will want to get off to a good start in the Plate.

But Nomads showed some real grit in their last outing and weren’t at all phased by a big half-time deficit, with their youngsters getting stuck in after the break.

This game could therefore be very tight.

At Vagabonds, there’s another close game in prospect. While Vagas won both Bowl outings against the Vikings, there was only eight points difference in the aggregate score over the two games which suggests there’s very little between the teams.

Prop Josh Hockney is scoring regularly for Vikings and is difficult to stop from close range, while Vagas have a great crop of youngsters starting their senior careers and are full of running.

Fixtures

Saturday, January 29:

North One West

Douglas v Glossop

@ Port-e-Chee ko tbc

Ravenscroft Manx Plate

Ramsey B v Emerging Nomads

@ Mooragh Park ko 2.15pm

Vagabonds Hornets v Western Vikings

@ Ballafletcher ko 2.15pm