Southern Knights head coach Alan Tait hoping to see more Borderers in his next squad

Only 16 of the initial 29-man squad named by Tait for 2023’s Fosroc Super Series Championship season were listed as products of Borders clubs – such as Melrose’s Donald Crawford and Aidan Cross, Kelso’s Dan Gamble and Hawick’s Connor Sutherland plus Russell Anderson from nearby Langholm and Harry Borthwick from Berwick, with the Kelso legend having to look further afield to reach the numbers required, recruiting the likes of Highland’s Erem Demirel, Cumnock’s Craig Greer, Newton Stewart’s Allan Ferrie, Blaydon’s Alex Dodds and Calum Barrett, previously based in Hong Kong.

Injury issues over the course of the campaign forced Tait and assisrtant coaches Scott Wight and Lewis Carmichael to enlist further talent from outwith the region such as Newcastle’s Corbin Thunder and Guildford’s Archie Hosking, though he also managed to draft in cover from closer at hand, including Melrose’s Ben Weir and Jed-Forest’s Clark Skeldon.

The 59-year-old believes initial resistance to the semi-professional competition, resulting in Hawick backing a 2021 Glasgow Hutchesons' Aloysians motion to the Scottish Rugby Union calling for it to be scrapped and the money spent on it diverted to bring back the since-revived inter-district championship, is subsiding as time goes on, sparking more interest among younger players.

Tait’s hoping the fact next year’s sprint series doesn’t clash with the Scottish Premiership season, unlike the championship, will encourage more up-and-coming players at clubs in the region to try it out, and though it will overlap with the Borders’ Kings of the 7s short-sided campaign, he doesn’t think that will pose too much of a problem.

“We’re hoping to keep quite a few players from our championship squad and obviously the sprint series doesn’t clash with the club season so that makes things easier,” said the former British and Irish Lion, head coach at Newcastle Falcons from 2009 to 2012.

“I’ll be talking to at least ten players from clubs in the Borders to see if they fancy having a go at the Knights.

“It’s their decision. We’ll talk to them and it’s up to them if they want to try playing at the next level up. We’ll wait and see.

“Sevens has always been there and it’s good for a lot of the young lads to get a run at it and to experience travelling around to wherever, but if they want to challenge themselves at XVs and play at the next level, the Super Series is what it’s all about.

“The sprint series is a good chance for us to get a look at some younger players in the Borders and even some more experienced players.

“I’ve already watched some games and I’ve been impressed by a few players so we’ll be talking to them.”

Tait, head coach at Knights since January, reckons the Melrose-based team face more of a struggle to keep a squad together than some of their Super Series rivals, saying: “It’s just a pity that we’ll probably lose more players than most and we’ll have to rebuild a fair bit compared to the rest.

“The rest have kind of all got settled squads now and it’s just a matter of keeping them ticking over – their guys will all rest over the winter and they’ll come back fit and strong – but we’re running around trying to get players from clubs here, there and everywhere and they’ll still be playing rugby right through to February, so they won’t be getting a rest if they do come on board.

“It’ll be straight into our pre-season training in March to get ready for April, so it’ll be quite tough on them.

“We’re getting a lot of young lads who train alongside us at the Greenyards and a lot of them say they want to represent the Knights when they’re older, so it might be totally different in years to come.

“If we’ve got youngsters wanting to play for us rather than having to try to coax players to come and join us and trying to get clubs to back us, it could all be different in the future. We’ll have to see what happens.”