Heriot’s trip next up for rugby’s Southern Knights

“Having had a chance to look back at Saturday, there are a huge amount of positives to take away from the game and a huge amount of work-ons,” said the former Selkirk head coach.

“First and foremost, to go toe to toe with last year’s champions for 40 or 50 minutes and keep them at 14-10 is great testament to the guys, but we’ve probably got to look at consistency of performance over the 80 minutes and also look at how they scored a few soft tries at the end.

“Looking at the positives, we had 14 debuts and they had 19 of the same squad that won the sprint and the Fosroc Super6 Championship last year. We’ve got new guys and it’s just a case of time in the saddle and it will come.”

Next up for head coach Alan Tait’s team is another trip to Edinburgh this coming Saturday, this time to take on Heriot’s – beaten 36-19 by Edinburgh A in their series opener last Friday – with kick-off at 3pm.

Wight added: “We’ve got a hugely talented squad and we’ve got to look forward to this Saturday and getting back on the horse, as they say. We’ve got another opportunity to work hard on implementing what we’ve worked on through the week at Goldenacre.

“There’s a great buzz in the camp. There are a huge amount of positives to take from last Saturday but also there is still a huge amount to work on and the guys are up for the challenge.

“As coaches, we’re looking at what went wrong last week and looking ahead to target a couple of weaknesses we’ve noticed within the Heriot’s team.

“There’s no question that it’s not going to be tough. The whole sprint season is going to be tough.

“It’s important that we stick to the task in hand and back one another up and have a crack at Heriot’s on Saturday, hopefully with a more positive outcome.”

The Melrose-based side’s points at Edinburgh’s Myreside Stadium came from a penalty kicked by stand-off Calum Grieve and a penalty try.

Their hosts, with Galashiels’ Stevie Scott as head coach, were also awarded a penalty try, with Jamie Berrisford, Harrison Courtney, Cal Davies, Lewis Berg and Angus Guthrie touching down too and Lee Millar adding five conversions.

Saturday’s game was halted five minutes ahead of full-time due to an injury to Knights back-row Will Hopes, given precautionary treatment on the pitch for a possible neck or spinal injury before being taken to hospital and discharged later that night after being diagnosed with concussion.