Southern Knights head coach Bruce Ruthven hoping his side will learn lessons from 62-12 defeat by Ayrshire Bulls

Sam Derrick scoring a try for Southern Knights against Ayrshire Bulls at the Greenyards in Melrose on Saturday (Photo by Bruce White/SNS Group/SRU)

That 62-12 thumping at the Greenyards in Melrose was the Borderers’ fourth loss in a row, but head coach Bruce Ruthven is hoping his side will learn lessons from it as they look to break their duck away to Boroughmuir Bears on Friday, May 20.

He’s also hoping the two-week break ahead of that game in Edinburgh will give some of the nine players he’s got out injured at the moment time to recover.

“It wasn’t a great game for the Knights. We didn’t play well,” said Ruthven.

Southern Knights' Fraser Renwick being tackled by Ayrshire Bulls' Tom Lambert at the Greenyards in Melrose at the weekend (Photo by Bruce White/SNS Group/SRU)

“We made things really tough for ourselves in the first 20 minutes, leaking five tries, of which four were down to our own mistakes.

“That’s very disappointing given how hard we’ve been working in training, and the boys have been doing well – I think everybody’s frustrated by that – but we’ll bounce back. We’ll get better.

“We’ve got such a young squad and these heavy defeats are part and parcel of their development.

“It’s never easy to be put under that pressure and be beaten in quite a dominant fashion, but these players will be better for it in the long term as long as they learn from their mistakes and keep moving forward.

Christian Townsend celebrating scoring a try for Ayrshire Bulls against Southern Knights at the Greenyards in Melrose on Saturday (Photo by Bruce White/SNS Group/SRU)

“It was always going to be a tough game and that’s exactly what it was in the end.

“These guys will be better for it.

“The sprint campaign’s all about seeing where we are and gelling as a squad. Once we get to August, that’s when we’ll really be measured on our performances.

“Hopefully we’ll get a bit of a response against Boroughmuir and hopefully we’ll get a couple of guys back from injury.

Southern Knights on the attack against Ayrshire Bulls at the Greenyards in Melrose on Saturday (Photo by Bruce White/SNS Group/SRU)

“All in all, we’re moving in the right direction.”

The hosts ’ tries on Saturday were scored by Sam Derrick and Finn Campbell, with Nathan Chamberlain converting the first of them.

Borderer Christian Townsend was among the South Ayrshire side’s try-scorers – along with Ryan Sweeney, Alex McGuire, Tom Jordan and Aaron Tait twice apiece and Jamie Sheddon three times over – and he also supplied five conversions, with Matt Minogue adding another.