Vagabonds Hornets and Emerging Nomads both grabbed wins in the opening round of the Manx Plate on Saturday.

Hornets beat Western Vikings 41-20 at Ballafletcher, while Emerging Nomads beat Ramsey B 31-10 at Mooragh Park.

After 14 minutes of deadlock it was Ramsey B who first troubled the scorers. Slow ruck ball 10 metres inside the Nomads’ half was shipped to Ramsey youngster Ross Quayle who stepped into the tackle but popped the ball beautifully to a charging Connor Cracknell who had picked a great running line.

He gathered without breaking stride and scythed through the Nomads defence to score.

Five minutes later it was all square. Ramsey had looked threatening and were working the ball around five metres out from the Nomads line. The southerners’ skipper, Mike Quayle, read the Ramsey move well and intercepted, allowing him to make 10 metres on his own before he was brought down.

But there was quick ruck ball for Nomads and they spun it left to wing Tony Quinn and his pace took him clear with a little hitch kick to avoid Al Christian’s last-ditch tap tackle.

As the half-hour approached, Nomads got their noses in front. Orry Watterson had taken the ball into heavy traffic inside the Ramsey 22 and, after a couple of unsuccessful thrusts, Percy Hampton squeezed over from close range for a 10-5 lead.

Within five minutes it was 15-5. Nomads earned themselves a scrum just outside the Ramsey 22. With a solid front five effort giving clean steady ball, number eight Harry Brereton launched from the base of the scrum, sucked in two defenders and, with Pat Creer and Steve Downe in support, he was spoiled for choice with his offload. He found Creer who finished off neatly to leave Nomads 10 in front at the break.

Ramsey skipper Darragh Pilkington missed a penalty chance early in the second half as the game settled into another period of stalemate, which wasn’t broken for 25 minutes when Nomads gained an attacking lineout.

Neil Collister overthrew his jumper but found Conor McCaughan at the tail. He gathered the ball and set off for the Ramsey line and, as he was tackled, he flipped the ball out of the back of his hand to the supporting Hampton who went in under the posts for a 20-5 lead.

With a little over 10 minutes to play, the northerners had to chase the game. Scrum half Nathan Robson, on his Ramsey senior debut, darted through a gap in the Nomads ruck defence, beat the first tackler and stepped inside second row Ian Hargreaves. The latter instinctively stuck his arm out but made contact with Robson’s head which left referee Gareth Hinge no option but to issue a red card.

Against 14 men, Ramsey piled on the pressure and with seven minutes to go they finally got over the line. Number eight Chris King broke from the base of a five-metre scrum and exploited the extra space to get over the line to make it 20-10.

But the Ramsey hopes were cruelly dashed in the final three minutes as the 14 men ran in three unanswered tries at the other end. Liam Savage marked his senior debut with the first of the three which he converted himself.

He was quickly followed in by Quinn who now had three tries from his first two senior appearances and the final score traded youth for experience when Watterson trundled in on the right wing after neat interplay with McCaughan.

At Ballafletcher, Cam Findlay notched up a hat-trick for Vagas Hornets. Matt Rockwell, Callum Murray, Mitch Wells and Cole Donnelly also crossed with Tom Rowley and Findlay also adding three conversions between them.

Vikings picked up a useful bonus point with a hat-trick of tries from skipper Ed Knight and one from Gary Stephenson.

Rugby results from Saturday, January 29:

North One West

Douglas 22-22 Glossop

Ravenscroft Manx Plate

Ramsey B 10-37 Emerging Nomads

Vagabonds Hornets 41-20 Western Vikings