Loss on road leaves Peebles in need of points at home to Berwick in rugby’s Tennent’s National League Division 2.

Saturday’s defeat on the road in Stranraer, following on from a 17-3 loss at Dumfries Saints two weeks previously, leaves Peebles in fourth place in the table, with 43 points from 14 games.

They’re now ten points adrift of league leaders Glasgow Academicals, having played a game extra, and five shy of Newton Stewart, however, so they’ll be hoping to pick up some points at home to eighth-placed Berwick this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm, to keep within reach of the top end of the table.

The Borderers’ scorers at the weekend were Finlay Collins with an unconverted try and Frey Maciver with a penalty.

Their game was the only one in their division to go ahead on Saturday, albeit after being moved 26 miles west from their hosts’ Bladnoch Park home ground to Wigtownshire’s ground in Stranraer, but they could have been forgiven for wishing it hadn’t come the final whistle as their opponents more than made amends for their 21-10 loss in the reverse fixture at the Gytes in October.

Peebles head coach Iain Chisholm again blamed indiscipline for his side coming up short, having picked up two yellow cards, one himself for a knockdown and another for captain Murdo Anderson for a high tackle.

“We keep giving away penalties, we keep chatting back to the referee and we keep doing things we shouldn’t that are completely within our control,” Chisholm told Borders Rugby TV afterwards.

“We’ve only got ourselves to blame. We can’t turn round and blame anybody but ourselves.

“Newton Stewart were really clever. While the wind didn’t favour anybody, any time they were awarded a penalty in our half, they just chipped away at the posts and they were able to go into a 16-0 lead.

“While it was a defeat, I was pleased with our second-half performance.

“I’m disappointed that it’s the same sort of thing we’re having to go over again but we’re looking forward to hosting Berwick at the Gytes next week.”