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2E2 Douglas put in another bonus-point winning performance as the sun shone down at Port-e-Chee in South Lancashire and Cheshire Division Two on Saturday.

Sefton came to play and play hard with a bull-dozing approach to breaking the gain line.

Nick Horsthuis and the rest of the Douglas back row made crunching hits to bring down the big runners that just kept on coming down the 10-12 channel, but as hard as they knocked the Douglas line stayed firm.

It was the Manx side who put points on the board first through skipper Ryan Maddox, Mike Hebden narrowly missed the conversion.

Sefton made ground crashing their way into the Douglas half and on occasion worried the try line. However, sterling defence and a number of key turnovers kept a clean sheet for the home side.

Douglas in true style added two further tries, one from a great break by skipper Maddox and the other a crunching run by young back row Liam Murphy which started on the halfway. Murphy broke five tacklers ran over two and went in under the posts. Hebden added the extras and Douglas went in to the second half 19-0 up.

Sefton started with greater purpose in the second period and finally got the score they wanted.

The heavy impacts started to take their toll with Cal Carine came on for Maddox whose wrist injury flared up again - hopefully it’s just a case of rest. Carine, however made an instant impact scoring a great try sliding over on the far left, which Hebden just wide to make the 24-5.

The scoring was all Seftons for the next period, as they managed to suck in the Douglas defence, scoring out wide on one occasion before sneaking another round the side of a ruck. At 24-15 changes were forced to the hosts with Horsthuis and Murphy both suffering blows to the head, so on came Craig McGee and Mark Dimsdale.

Douglas played most of the rugby the the last 10 minutes thanks to some great individual efforts but this really was a good team performance both in attack and defence.

Andy Evans was to have the final say with a great try to make the final score 29-15, denying Sefton a losing bonus point.

So many good performances, too many to mention lads but you know who you are. Massive game next week against Vagabonds so everyone needs to get to training and build on this great showing. Well done all and welcome home Dan Creer and Mark McGee!

THE promotion race looks to be over for 2E2 Douglas as they went down fighting at Southport on Saturday afternoon.

Mathematically, it may still be possible for the Manx side to gain promotion to South Lancashire and Cheshire Division One as both Crewe and Oswestry also lost [the latter side to Ramsey]. But Douglas will have to put in some bonus point wins and hope that sides below them in the league beat the other top teams to gain promotion after this disappointment.

Injuries to skipper Ryan Maddox, Will Latta (both broken wrists) and Simon Heggs (hamstring), along with the imminent happy arrival of baby Goodall, meant the Douglas backline was virtually unrecognisable.

Able vice-captain Rob Todd faced an uphill struggle against a well-drilled, stable Southport team.

With two local derbies coming up, Douglas face a tough end to the season and, no matter what, will be aiming to finish as high up the table as possible.

Proper congratulations to Scott and Kathryn on the arrival of Heidi Rose Goodall at 7.10am Sunday morning, although Scott freely admits all the congratulations should go to Kathryn as she did all the hard work!

Well done guys from all at Douglas Rugby Club.

THE Douglas B back line was on fire at Mooragh Park on Saturday when they swept Ramsey B aside 46-6 in the opening game of the 2012 Shimmin Wilson Manx Trophy.

Liam King was the target man for Douglas with a second half hat-trick, but all the hard work was done in the first half with Scott Goodall pulling the strings from stand-off.

Ramsey took the lead after six minutes with a Dan Bonwick penalty but Douglas hit back four minutes later and took the lead. Mike Hebden sliced through the Ramsey midfield to set up a ruck and scrum-half Andy Jones spotted that Ramsey weren’t guarding the sides of the ruck and he sneaked down the blind side for the opening try. Scott Goodall converted and Douglas were 7-3 in front.

The lead was doubled 10 minutes later. Douglas forwards piled on the pressure inside the Ramsey 22 and Ben Dutnall crashed in from close range but was just short of the line. Jones recycled quickly and when the ball was moved wide, Ryan Maddox was in for the try. Goodall again converted to make it 14-3.

Douglas picked up their third of the game on the half-hour mark. Maddox intercepted a Garry Vernon pass and sent Goodall clear to make it 19-3.

Bonwick added another penalty for Ramsey but before the half ended Douglas were in for two more tries. Mark Dimsdale crashed upfield from a tap penalty and his neat offload sent Jack Moore clear. Goodall converted to make it 26-6.

In stoppage time at the end of the half, right wing Carl Conroy raced clear from 40 metres to effectively end the contest at 31-6.

Ramsey started the second half much better and the scrum and lineout started to secure clean ball. They were however unable to break the Douglas defence. The pace in the Douglas back line meant that Douglas were very dangerous on the counter attack and that was essentially the story of the second half.

Twenty minutes in and a man down, with Simon Ward in the bin, Douglas counter-attacked and Liam King raced clear. Four minutes later he got his second and the hat-trick was finally completed in stoppage time at the end of the half.

Douglas now look forward to the Manx Shield play-off against Southern Nomads this Saturday.

WITH the north west league sides taking a week off, the domestic competitions resume this Saturday with a game in each of the Manx Trophy and Bowl competitions.

In the Trophy, Ramsey B take on Douglas B at the Mooragh Park. Douglas won the Manx Shield game at the Mooragh 10-7 which suggests that this could be a close one. Ramsey B are, however, very short on match fitness and this will be their first competitive fixture in a few weeks. Douglas haven’t had a game in three weeks either though so that makes both teams pretty even.

No first team games means that both sides are able to use first teamers who didn’t start last Saturday. For Ramsey, Dave Hinks, Matty Meechan and Jarred Callister should all be available. Douglas, however, travelled to Moore last week with a depleted first team and may well have a bit of an edge on paper. Andy Jones should be fit for them as he builds up fitness for a first team comeback after a couple of weeks out with injury.