South of Scotland name squad for rugby inter-district championship finale against Caledonia Reds

Head coach Matty Douglas and player-coach Bruce McNeil after South of Scotland's 27-25 win against Glasgow and the West in rugby's national inter-district championship at Kelso's Poynder Park on Saturday (Photo: Steve Cox)

There are seven Greens in head coach Matty Douglas’s starting XV, captained by Shawn Muir – the loosehead prop skipper, hooker and openside flanker Fraser and Calum Renwick, tighthead prop Nicky Little, lock Connor Sutherland, No 8 Jae Linton and full-back Kirk Ford – and another player for the treble-chasing Scottish Premiership table-toppers, Russell Anderson, on the bench.

That’s down from the eight Hawick starters and one replacement deployed for the South’s 27-25 win against Glasgow and the West at Kelso’s Poynder Park on Saturday gone and six first-XV Greens and four substitutes fielded for their 27-24 away victory over Edinburgh seven days previously but only by one and two respectively.

Premiership play-off semi-finalists Kelso and fellow top-flight side Selkirk provide the next biggest contingents, three apiece, and the other two starting places go to players from Melrose set to go up against them next season after being granted automatic promotion following the end of the Fosroc Super Series competitions.

Kelso’s representatives are lock Keith Melbourne, inside centre Frankie Robson and, keeping up his standing as the regional team’s only ever-present since their revival 15 years ago, blindside flanker Bruce McNeil.

The Souters starting are wingers Callum Anderson and Josh Welsh and fly-half and vice-captain Aaron McColm.

Representing Melrose are Donald and Douglas Crawford at outside centre and scrum-half respectively.

Joining ex-Southern Knights captain Anderson on the bench are Kelso’s Grant Shiells, Terry Logan, Andy Tait and Dwain Patterson, along with Gala’s Angus Dun and Craig Keddie and Melrose’s Struan Hutchison.

The Borderers go into Saturday’s game at Highland’s Canal Park home ground, with kick-off at 3pm, on top of the championship table, with eight points, and their hosts – 2023's champions, courtesy of a 32-30 victory over the South in Glasgow last May – are bottom, on three.

Looking ahead to that potential title-decider, Douglas, also Hawick’s head coach, told Borders Rugby TV: “Caley are a different opposition to Edinburgh and Glasgow – they bring different threats – and I really like their style of play.

“They’ll run from anywhere and they’ll look to try to exploit us in the wide channels.

“We know what’s coming and we’ve tried to look at a few things to combat that and we’ll be taking as strong a squad as possible.

“I think it’ll come down to who takes their opportunities and deals with the pressure best on the day.”