An impressive start

A Brandon Atchison hat trick was the highlight of an emphatic win for Ramsey in their opening Manx Trophy game. His first two on twelve and twenty-six minutes respectively, plus two Dan Richmond conversions saw Ramsey lead 14-0 after half an hour. Cam Findlay put Vagas on the board with a penalty but tries from Dan Bonwick and Fintan Cummins plus one more Richmond conversion left Ramsey 26-3 ahead at half time.

Connor Gauci went over for Vagas just after the restart and when Cam Findlay converted from out wide to make it 26-10 a comeback seemed possible. Vagas however then hit the self-destruct button. Number eight Mark Oldfield was shown a red card for some inappropriate footwork and shortly afterwards wing Steve Gawne picked up a yellow for a high tackle. Ramsey made hay while the sun shone. Connor Cracknell, Dan Richmond and Tom Moffatt all crossed for tries with Richmond adding two more conversions to increase the lead to 45-10. Nathan Gibson clawed one back for Vagas at the other end, before Atchison claimed his hat trick and Callum Clague added two late tries to ice the Ramsey cake.