Future Rosie for Berwick after win against relegation rivals Preston Lodge

Berwick's James Grieve on the attack during their 31-10 victory at Preston Lodge on Saturday (Photo: Stuart Fenwick)

That result in East Lothian averts a speedy return to the next division down for Berwick at the expense of their hosts, now relegated alongside Dumfries Saints, Boroughmuir, Cartha Queen’s Park and Hamilton Bulls.

The Scremerston side finish the season seventh in the table on 55 points from 22 fixtures, seven more than eighth-placed Preston Lodge.

Their tries at Pennypit Park in Prestonpans were scored by Aidan Rosie at the double, James Thompson and James Grieve, with captain Jack Webster adding four conversions and a penalty.

Touching down for their hosts were Gus Hillhouse and Scott Clark, both conversions being missed.

Berwick head coach Colin Young is now setting his sights on pushing for promotion to join the likes of Gala and Melrose in Tennent’s National League Division 1 rather than just trying to avoid heading back whence they came, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “This is where we want to be.

“This is the marker we need to set, National 2, and we’ve got to rise from that and kick on and learn from this big time.

“That’s why it’s so big for us. We didn’t want to go back down to National 3 – we want to go up to National 1.”

Second-rower Euan Thompson agrees, saying: “If we were going down, there’d definitely be teams coming and taking players, and that would hurt a club like us.

“We need to keep together, and next season we’re pushing for that next league up. We want to go up again. We want to challenge ourselves.

“If we’d gone down, it would have been heartbreaking for the boys.”

Looking back over Saturday’s match, Young added: “We knew that they would be coming out with all guns blazing, and I think we absorbed that well.

“I do think just our fitness, passion and skill levels were a little bit greater than theirs.

“Don’t get me wrong, they ran us close but in the last 20 or 25 minutes, the inaccuracy of their passing gave us a chance to get in behind them and we scored four great tries.

“Everything we worked on came off.”