Southern Knights hit for six in Super6 Sprint Series but hopeful of averting whitewash

Southern Knights' Rudi Brown being stopped in his tracks by Boroughmuir Bears defenders at Meggetland Sports Complex in Edinburgh on Saturday (Photo by Simon Wootton/SNS Group/SRU)

That 32-14 loss – a near carbon copy of their 31-18 beating by the same opposition at Edinburgh’s Meggetland Sports Complex eight days previously – means the Borderers are now even more determined to bow out of the series with a win this coming weekend, however, according to try-scorer Aidan Cross.

Knights now only have one chance left to avert a whitewash this campaign and that comes at home to another Edinburgh side, Heriot’s, at the Greenyards at Melrose on Saturday, with kick-off at 2pm.

The winger’s 80th-minute try was his third against the Bears in eight days, having scored twice in their previous game, but, even accompanied by a touchdown by replacement hooker Duncan Hood 10 minutes before and two Nathan Chamberlain conversions, it was no more than a consolation effort after letting their hosts get 32-0 ahead with 20 minutes left to play.

Southern Knights wing Aidan Cross celebrating scoring a try against Boroughmuir Bears on Saturday (Photo by Simon Wootton/SNS Group/SRU)

“It’s a hard one to take,” Cross told Borders Rugby TV afterwards.

“We’ve come back after an eight-day turnaround and we’ve tried a few things, but the Bears are good opposition. We knew what we were coming into.

“I got one at the end, and it’s nice but it’s just a consolation. It doesn’t mean anything when you’re talking about that scoreline.

“We’ve now got another game, against Heriot’s at home, and we’ve got seven days to prepare for that.

Southern Knights' Keiran Clark on the ball against Boroughmuir Bears at the weekend (Photo by Simon Wootton/SNS Group/SRU)

“It’s just going to make it even better if we can win next week.

“It’s been a hard campaign. We knew it was going to be hard. We’ve got a young team, but that’s no excuse.

“I believe we can come out next week and we can show our home fans that we can pull a win out of the bag.”

Disappointed as he is to see his side propping up the series table with just a solitary losing bonus point to show for almost 500 hours’ play, Cross says he and the rest of the squad are learning lessons from their reverses and are confident that they can turn things around in due course.

“We’re not going to be perfect every week, but there are things to learn from,” he said.