Southern Nomads beat Ramsey 12-8 to set up a Hartford Homes Manx Cup Final clash with Douglas Celts in the end-of-season finale.

The two sides meet in a pool game for the Cup later in April but the result of that is irrelevant as both have now qualified for the final.

Ramsey started the game the better of the two as their set-piece scrum started to dominate and Nomads started to leak penalties.

With 11 minutes played, the Ramsey forwards pounded the defence with big runs from Matt Meechan, Josh Kelly and Jared May. This forced Nomads to narrow their defence and allowed space out wide for Ramsey wing Brayden Roche to score.

Nomads did gain a little foothold as the game wore on, with the Craine brothers making yardage, but Ramsey held firm as did the Nomads defence at the other end.

This left virtually all the first half scoreless until three minutes before the break when Ramsey’s Dan Kelly fired over a penalty to make the half-time Ramsey lead 8-0.

The dynamic changed after the interval as Nomads achieved scrum parity. This gave them a supply of clean ball and they were finally able to get their back line moving regularly.

Seven minutes into the half, Conor Stephens wriggled clear of the Ramsey defence and headed left. He put Nomads’ wing Alex Maher into some space and he finished off to reduce the lead to 8-5.

It then became Ramsey’s turn to defend as Nomads turned the screw. They were held up twice over the Ramsey line as they dominated territory and possession and the Mooragh Park side were essentially surviving on scraps.

But the clock was ticking away and, with just under five minutes to play, it looked like Ramsey might just cling on.

At this stage Nomads played their joker as pace man Tony Quinn entered the fray. He was quickly into action but initially, well covered by the defence.

With two minutes remaining though, he finally got the ball with some space to work with. From 50 metres out he lit up the burners and outflanked the Ramsey defence to score under the posts with Zac Hand converting to seal victory.

Vagabonds beat Colne & Nelson 26-24 at Ballafletcher to put themselves into third place in Counties Three ADM Minor Conference.

Cam Findlay, Ben Kelly, Jake Dunsmore and Harry Goodwin all picked up tries for Vagas, with Findlay converting three from four.

The bonus point win sees Vagas only one point behind early leaders Colne, although points from phase one of the league have yet to be carried over.

Vagabonds women beat Aldwinians 38-10 to keep themselves just in the hunt for a promotion place in Women’s NC2 North (South).

The Bea O’Neill/Freya Crowe try factory was in full production mode for Vagas and made five tries between them – three from O’Neill and two from Crowe.

Becky Dunne chipped in with one and skipper Sammie Macdonald kicked four conversions.

Saturday, March 21:

Regional Two North West

Widnes 32-31 Douglas

Counties Three ADM Lancs/Cheshire Minor Conference

Vagabonds 26-24 Colne & Nelson

Women’s NC2 North (South)

Aldwinians 10-38 Vagabonds

Hartford Homes Manx Cup

PDMS Southern Nomads 12-8 Ramsey