Scottish Premiership rugby clubs will need to raise game to compete against ex-Super6 opposition, warns former Southern Knights attack coach Scott Wight

Selkirk's Zen Szwagrzak on the ball for Southern Knights during their 47-24 loss to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)Selkirk's Zen Szwagrzak on the ball for Southern Knights during their 47-24 loss to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)
Selkirk's Zen Szwagrzak on the ball for Southern Knights during their 47-24 loss to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)
Club rugby in the Borders is going to need to raise its game if the region’s four Scottish Premiership sides hope to challenge for honours following the scrapping of the Fosroc Super Series at the weekend, according to Southern Knights attack coach Scott Wight.

Wight and Knights defence coach Iain Chisholm will be co-head coaches at Melrose next season and seven of the Greenyards club’s players featured among the semi-professional outfit’s squad for the Fosroc Super Series Sprint season that brought the curtain down on their near-five-year history on Saturday, with Hawick, Kelso and Selkirk all set to field former Super6 talent come September too.

The Borderers’ ex-semi-pro contingents look likely to be dwarfed by those at the disposal of other clubs such as Ayrshire Bulls and Scottish National League Division 1’s Stirling County, however, so the region’s remaining representatives in the top flight and Jed-Forest and Gala in the next tier down ought to be expecting the going to get tougher and that’s a challenge they need to be ready for, says former Selkirk head coach Wight.

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“I dare say we’ll find out first hand next season what level of rugby the premiership will be at,” said the 38-year-old.

Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)
Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)

“If the rumours are true that 17 or 18 boys from Ayrshire Bulls are staying at Ayr, that’ll give us a clearer picture of the level we’ll need to be at next year.

“If they’re adding that amount of boys to a team that have won promotion from National 1, they’re going to have a big backbone, so people will soon get a true understanding of the level they’re going to have to be at next year.

“Having been at Selkirk for four years and Southern Knights for the last two, I’d say the standard of rugby is considerably stronger at Super6 level than at premiership level, but that is going to be diluted a bit once people return to clubs.”

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Wight also worries that the gulf between club and professional rugby will widen again, potentially thwarting youngsters’ hopes of following in ex-Knights flanker Rory Darge’s footsteps and moving on to Glasgow Warriors, or Edinburgh, and earning selection for the Scottish national team.

Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)
Southern Knights losing their last game ever by 47-24 to Boroughmuir Bears at home at Melrose's Greenyards on Saturday (Photo: Craig Murray)

“The whole idea of Super6 was to close the gap between professional and amateur rugby but now we’re essentially going back the way to where we were when I was playing club rugby ten years ago,” he said.

“It’s important now that we try to put a pathway back in so that club rugby players are able to play at the next level, so there’ll have to be a big focus on the inter-district championships and bringing back club internationals.

“As long as there are a couple of performance pathways to give guys the opportunity to aspire to play at a higher level, that would be great.

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“Just to go back to club rugby and not give club players the ambition to play at that next level would mean the gap would become huge again.

“It’s a real balancing act but we’ve got to give club players something at the end of the season to aim for or it would just all become pretty stale again, in my opinion.”

Knights called it a day at the weekend against the same opposition they first faced back in October 2019, Boroughmuir Bears.

Back then, they got the better of the Edinburgh outfit by 28-7 away in a pre-season friendly, but this time round they lost out by 47-24 in a wooden-spoon play-off at home at the Greenyards after finishing the regular season second from bottom of the table on six points from as many fixtures.

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Melrose’s contribution to the Knights’ swan-song squad named in April comprised Dylan Cockburn, Calum Crookshanks, Jack Dobie, Angus Runciman, Roly Brett, Adam Hall and Robbie Chalmers, with all but Chalmers featuring in their last-ever match-day 23 and Runciman skippering.

The other Borderers in their starting XV were Jed-Forest’s Garry Young and Finlay Scott and Selkirk’s Zen Szwagrzak, with Hawick’s Marcus Brogan, Jed’s Mark Glen and Kelso’s Dan Gamble and Angus McGregor among their replacements, all used.

The hosts’ try-scorers were loosehead prop Dobie, left-winger Jeremy Civil, outside centre Ewan Greenlaw and replacement Gamble, with full-back Callum Grieve adding two conversions.

Touching down for the visitors, with ex-Melrose and Border Reivers centre Graham Shiel as head coach, were Euan Muirhead, Max Loboda, Rowan Stewart at the double, Duncan Munn, George Paul and Alex Thom, with Matt Reid kicking five conversions and Paul another.

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