New faces to fore as South of Scotland return to defend rugby’s Scottish inter-district championship title
South of Scotland have named ten debutants in their starting line-up to face Edinburgh as they begin their latest bid for rugby’s Scottish inter-district championship title this Friday, with another six on the bench.
Selkirk head coach Gordon Henderson takes over that role at the South and he’s selected six of his players at the Philiphaugh club to start against the capital city side at Hawick’s Mansfield Park, with a further three as replacements.
Full-back Callum Anderson is the only one of his half-dozen Souter starters to have represented the region before, with Andrew Grant-Suttie, Ben Pickles, Hugo Alderson, Jack Fisher and Monroe Job all making their debuts in red and white.
Bruce Riddell is their sole substitute to have played for the South in the past, with Corey Tait and Taylor Wilson being new faces.
Melrose were in Arnold Clark National League Division 1 the last time the South contested the four-way championship but their return to the domestic top flight in the interim is reflected by six of their players being called up as debutants, four of them from kick-off, as part of an all-Arnold Clark Premiership match-day squad.
New South captain Angus Runciman starts alongside Greenyards teammates Finn Douglas, Jack Dobie and Sam Derrick, with Scott Clark and Oliver Anderson among the replacements.
Hawick bring the most experience to the party, with Andrew Mitchell, Fraser Renwick and Conor Sutherland all returning.
Fly-half Dwain Patterson is also an old hand for the South and he’s joined by Kelso teammate Dan Gamble in Friday’s starting XV and three more Poynder Park players on the bench – Archie Barbour, Gregor Law and Liam Herdman, the latter two, like Gamble, being new recruits.
Kick-off at Mansfield Park is at 7.30pm and Caledonia Reds host Glasgow and the West at Stirling’s Bridgehaugh Park at the same time.
Round two of the championship, back to being played in a league format, follows on Saturday, December 20, with the South away to Glasgow and Reds hosting Edinburgh.
It concludes on Friday, February 13, with the South at home to Caledonia at Jedburgh’s Riverside Park and Glasgow away to Edinburgh.
The South go into this season’s competition as defending champions after beating Reds 36-18 in April 2024’s final in Inverness after edging past Glasgow at home at Kelso and Edinburgh away at Musselburgh the month before, by 27-25 and 27-24 respectively.
Only three points separated the South and Edinburgh last time round and Ewen Swinton, the former’s operations manager, is expecting this week’s reunion to be another close-run thing, saying: “Edinburgh have named a very strong squad, but so have we, and I expect this to be a really entertaining game, with some of the best club players from across our districts on show.
“We’ve held great games at Netherdale and Poynder Park in recent seasons, with the crowds increasing each time to over 1,500, so we’re hoping that the Borders public will come out in force again to back their South team and see if we can set a new modern-day record for this fixture.”
The region’s clubs have been working together to help hosts Hawick secure a sizeable turnout, with Kelso and Gala bringing their planned seconds fixture forward a day from Friday to give the Border junior league players involved an opportunity to make it along to Mansfield to cheer the South on.
The teams will also be playing for the Abbotsford Claret Jug for the first time, that trophy having been commissioned by the Tweedbank tourist attraction of that name’s faculty of advocates in memory of its former owner, Edinburgh-born author Walter Scott.
Tickets for Friday’s game are priced at £10 and £5 for concessions, payable at the gate.