Douglas RUFC under 15’s hosted fellow teens, Aireborough RUFC at Port-e-Chee, and the visitors schedule fortunately involved a Friday afternoon flight before storm Kathleen took hold.
With the senior Douglas squad due at Waterloo but marooned through Saturday’s flight cancellations, the busy touchline was rewarded with thrilling rugby.
The strong diagonal wind didn’t faze either side and both teams demonstrated remarkable ball-handling, eschewing a kicking game and running the ball at most opportunities.
Talented teens
Kudos to referee Adrian Shimmin who added to the flowing nature of the match as Douglas took a two-try lead when Alfie Perks opened the scoring, and the speedy Archie Davies raced in after offloads from Alex Smith and Arlo Roberts.
Dan Kelly added a third and a conversion after the break as Alfie Mathieson-Nelson, usually a scrum-half, began to pull the strings at number 10.
But the Yorkshire team put in some determined running, and Harry Crosby crashed through for 17-5 shortly after Euan Higgins and Rory McLoughlin combined to go close to scoring for Douglas as the end to end contest continued.
Aireborough’s Finlay Walker finished off a glorious counter for 17-10, just when it seemed defences were ruling the roost and tackles from Joel Jenkins and Jacob Erasmus had kept the Douglas line intact.
It took another spark from Mathieson-Nelson to get Douglas on the front foot, but a spilled pass when Douglas looked odds-on to score resulted in a strong Aireborough counter.
When the Yorkshire boys coughed up a turnover of their own deep in Douglas territory, the home side swept upfield with real intent and Davies put his foot on the gas from 40 metres out to plant down the clincher.
Kelly converted for 24-10 and despite heroic Aireborough ambition, Douglas were home and dry.
Douglas Squad: Alex Smith, Lucas Venables, Arlo Roberts, Joel Jenkins, Nathan Owens, Jacob Erasmus, Alfie Perks, Will Shimmin, Alfie Mathieson-Nelson, Euan Higgins, Jonty Shimmin (cap), Rory McLoughlin, Archie Davies, Dan Kelly, Finn Rattray, Archie Wilcock. Coach: Ben Dutnall
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