Column: Celebrations for Berwick and close but no cigar - yet, anyway - for Gala and Langholm

Let’s start with the good news, and many congratulations to Berwick as, after almost 20 years, the Northumbrians have reached their highest position yet in Scottish rugby with a guaranteed Tennent’s National League Division 2 place next season following a thumping 57-27 win against Greenock Wanderers on the road at the weekend.

They finish their campaign in second place in NL3 behind Lasswade, who they beat at Scremerston a few weeks ago, having won all their games except four, and the amazing thing is that those four games were lost by only two points on three occasions and one point on the other. That is an astonishing stat.

Berwick were playing regional rugby only a few seasons ago, and following their 2019 Scottish Shield win, they found themselves in NL3 and now NL2. They did it the hard way too, with a season peppered with weeks of non-activity due to postponements.

Saturday marked the end of the career of Gareth Hill, a Berwick legend for years, and it was fitting that he finished the game on Saturday with a hat-trick of tries.

Berwick will end their long season at home this Saturday against Murrayfield Wanderers, and if they win, they will have beaten all the teams in the league and gone through the season without losing at home.

I look forward to seeing derbies between them and Peebles next season.

Now for the flip side of that. Gala missed out by one solitary league point over the course of 22 games in their bid for promotion back to the Tennent’s Premiership.

Losses at home to Heriot’s Blues and Biggar in the latter stages of the season didn’t help, and while it’s heartbreaking for the club, they can be proud of the fact they got to within touching distance of the top flight under head coach Fraser Thomson in his first season in charge.

They have played an exciting brand of rugby and will surely be in a good position to go one better next season if they manage to keep their squad together.

Langholm have been another club hit by postponements, but the Dumfries and Galloway outfit came up under the radar at the end of the season with an unbeaten run.

Sadly for them, North Berwick pipped them to the winning post but the region’s oldest club can be proud of what they did in Tennent’s East Region League Division 2.

The importance of taking your points and opportunities when you get them is brought into sharp focus when you lose out on promotion by narrow margins, but both they and Gala will bounce back for sure.