Borderers on ball for Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors in pre-season warm-ups
Edinburgh and United Rugby Championship rivals Glasgow Warriors named seven Borderers between them in their respective starting line-ups for pre-season friendlies at home to Ulster last Friday and away to Newcastle Red Bulls the day after, with another two joining in later on.
Among those starting for head coach Sean Everitt’s Edinburgh at the capital’s Hive Stadium were Jedburgh’s Glen Young as lock and captain, Hawick’s Hector Patterson at scrum-half, Melrose’s Harri Morris at hooker and Kelso’s Jack Utterson at openside flanker.
An all-changed XV were fielded for the second half of that 28-26 defeat in front of a crowd of 5,015, with Peebles’ Rory McHaffie taking over from Wes Goosen on the left wing.
Patterson, 21, scored one of Edinburgh’s four tries, along with outside-centre Geordie Gwynn, substitute tighthead prop Paul Hill and replacement No 9 Conor McAlpine, with fly-half James Grayson adding two conversions and his replacement Ross Thompson another.
Their Northern Irish opponents’ tries, all converted by Jamie Benson, were touched down by James McCormick at the double, Aitzol Arenzana-King and Matthew Devine.
Head coach Franco Smith’s starters at Newcastle’s Kingston Park on Saturday included Melrose’s Dylan Cockburn at blindside flanker, Hawick’s Jack Oliver at scrum-half and Gala’s Kerr Johnston at outside-centre, with two other ex-Greenyards players, Jake Dalziel and Allan Ferrie, on their hosts’ bench for the first half and in action for the second.
Johnston, 21, scored one of Warriors’ five tries south of the border as they lost out 47-31, watched by 2,816 spectators, and also touching down were left-winger Guy Rogers at the double and replacements Jamie McAughtrie and Callum Reidy, with fly-half Matthew Urwin kicking three conversions.
Bulls’ try-scorers were Sam Graham, Chris Harris, Josh Hodge, Tom Christie, Christian Wade, George McGuigan and Oli Spencer, with Hodge adding five conversions and replacement fly-half Dalziel, 18, another.
Edinburgh and Glasgow have got one more friendly each lined up against English opposition ahead of the forthcoming championship season, both this coming Friday.
The former are away to London’s Harlequins and the latter host Bath at Old Anniesland, with kick-offs at 7.45pm and 7.30pm respectively.
Edinburgh begin next season on the road at Ulster on Friday, September 25, and Warriors are away to Munster the day after, with kick-offs at 7.45pm and 5.30pm.