Changes afoot as Jed-Forest prepare for relegation to rugby’s Scottish National League Division 1

​Though their fate had been as good as sealed for weeks, it wasn’t until their 29-25 defeat at home to Edinburgh’s Heriot’s Blues at Jedburgh’s Riverside Park on Saturday that their demotion from the Scottish Premiership was confirmed, with Ayr taking their place.

That loss, their 15th on the bounce, leaves them bottom of the table, with five points, 18 adrift of second-bottom Glasgow Hawks’ tally of 23 points from 13 fixtures.

They’re still awaiting their first win of this campaign over three months into it and their first all told since a 41-13 home victory over Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians last season in mid-January.

Jed aren’t back in action until Hawks visit them on Saturday, January 20, with kick-off at 3pm, and Cranston is hoping to see his side seize that opportunity – one of three games they’ve got left in the top flight, the others being away to second-placed Marr a week later and at home to fifth-placed Kelso seven days after that – to salvage a bit of pride as they prepare for life a division down.

Even though they ended up on the wrong side of the scoreline, they got within a single unconverted try of securing ther first win of this campaign at the weekend after going into half-time 13-10 in front and the fighting spirit on displays offers hope for next term, reckons Cranston.

“For most of this season, we’ve fallen away as games have gone on, but on Saturday we stuck in there and every time Heriot’s scored, we fought back, and I reckon if we’d had maybe another five minutes, we could have stolen that game,” he said.

“We were starting to run out of steam a bit, though, so I might be wrong in thinking that.”

Looking ahead, Jed are already out to recruit a directory of rugby, with applications open until the middle of next month, to replace the interim set-up headed by David Grieve in place since the departure of previous head coach Andrew Brown earlier this year.

“Next season starts for us now,” said Cranston.

“We have to start looking towards next season because we know we’re relegated now. I think we’d known we were relegated anyway before that but it’s official now.

“Plans are in place and we’ve been having meetings for several weeks now because we know improvements need to be made and changes need to be made as well, so we have to act now.

“I dread to think of us slipping down again but it has happened to other teams that have been relegated. It can be a slippery slope.”

Jed have only been in the top flight since 2019 – finishing sixth in that coronavirus-curtailed campaign, eighth in 2022 and sixth last time round – so heading back the way they came and facing the likes of Melrose, Gala and possibly Peebles rather than Hawick, Kelso and Selkirk won’t come as too much of a shock to the system, says Cranston.

“When we were last in National 1, we were in the top four and challenging for promotion almost every year, but there was a big gulf between that division and the premiership in those days,” he recalled.

Jed’s try-scorers on Saturday were centre Rory Marshall, captain Clark Skeldon and second-row Gregor Law, with Dom Buckley adding two penalties and a conversion and Owen Cranston also converting once.

Hooker Rory Jackson and winger Cammy Meager both scored tries at the double for Heriot’s, with fellow winger Paul Christie touching down another and Graham Wilson and Luke Townsend kicking conversions.