Rugby stalwart Ross Nixon hits 300 mark for Selkirk in cup knockout at Ayr

Ross Nixon being presented with a bottle of gin by club president David Anderson to mark his 300th appearance for Selkirk (Photo: Grant Kinghorn)

Selkirk’s XVs rugby season is over after the much-changed line-up they sent west to Ayr on Saturday were knocked out of the sport’s Scottish cup by their lower-league hosts.

That 49-13 quarter-final defeat leaves fellow Tennent’s Premiership side Hawick as the region’s only remaining representatives in the competition following their prospective last-eight opponents Glasgow High Kelvinside’s withdrawal.

The Greens will face Glasgow Hawks away in the cup’s last four, with Tennent’s National League Division 1 outfit Ayr going on to host Marr, both those ties taking place on Saturday, April 15, with kick-off at 3pm.

Fly-half Cameron Easson scored the Souters’ sole try at Millbrae at the weekend, with full-back Matt Reid converting and also kicking two penalties.

Selkirk hooker Bruce Riddell in action during the Souters' 49-13 Scottish cup knockout at Ayr on Saturday (Pic: Grant Kinghorn)

On the scoresheet for their hosts were Ross McCorkindale, Zachary Howard at the double, Ronan Pottie, Ciaran Wood, Jamie Bova and John Fulton with tries, with Bova adding four conversions and two penalties.

That loss marked Ross Nixon’s 300th appearance for the Philiphaugh club, albeit not in the manner he’d have wished for, since making his debut back in 2006, and the 35-year-old centre was presented with a bottle of Selkirk Gin by the Souters’ president, David Anderson, to mark the occasion.

At the other end of the experience spectrum, Saturday’s match, Scott Wight’s last as Selkirk’s head coach prior to moving on to assist Alan Tait at Melrose-based semi-professional outfit Southern Knights, saw Selkirk Youth Club team captain Daniel Main make his debut for the senior side as a replacement.

Reflecting on that milestone, Nixon told Borders Rugby TV: “If you’d told me as a ten-year-old laddie that I’d get 300 games for the club, I’d have been a happy man.

Stand-off Cameron Easson scoring Selkirk's only try against Ayr on Saturday (Pic: Grant Kinghorn)

“All I really wanted to do was play for Selkirk, so to have put the jersey on 300 times is a massive honour.”

Looking back over Saturday’s cup exit, he added: “It’s been a long drag this season and we’ve accumulated a lot of injuries over the last wee while and guys have got farming and other commitments.

“The boys that came into the team today stuck in well but it’s a big step up from what they’ve been used to and Ayr was obviously a step too far.

“In the first half, we were all right and we had a few chances and if we’d taken them, we’d have been in the game, maybe slightly ahead, at half-time and that might have changed things and got our confidence up a wee bit, but when they ran in a couple of tries after the break, it broke the spirit of the boys a bit and Ayr just kind of ran away with it at the end.

James Head on the ball for Selkirk during their Scottish cup exit at Ayr at the weekend (Pic: Grant Kinghorn)

“It’s disappointing. It would have been nice to finish the season on a bit of a high but what do you do? You can’t magic boys out of nowhere and the boys that came in did a decent job.

“The guys stuck in and they were trying to the end but a lot of them were goosed.”

Nixon finished this season as Selkirk’s joint fifth-highest try-scorer on three, along with Lachlan Ferguson.

Fellow veteran Bruce Riddell came out on top of that table on eight, with Josh Welsh second on six, Ryan Cottrell and Scott McClymont joint third on five and Allan Ferrie fourth with four.