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.
In the Shimmin Wilson Manx Bowl, Vagabonds B edged out Emerging Nomads 13-10 at Ballafletcher. Tom Gascoyne bagged a try for Vagas and the rest of their points came from the boot of Michael Oates.
Rugby Results
Shimmin Wilson Manx Trophy
Ramsey B 6-46 Douglas B
Shimmin Wilson Manx Bowl
Emerging Nomads 10-13 Vagabonds B