Southern Knights name squad for farewell campaign in rugby’s Fosroc Super Series Sprint

​The Melrose-based squad’s 29 core-contracted players, joined by five youngsters currently training with Edinburgh, include 16 listing Borders clubs of origin and another on Selkirk’s books at the moment.

The lion’s share of that Borders contingent are Melrose players, making a virtue out of necessity, given antipathy towards the semi-professional set-up elsewhere in the region, by providing them with a head-start on their pre-season preparations ahead of their controversial return to the Scottish Premiership in the autumn after five years out.

Making up the Greenyards club’s contribution to the Knights’ personnel are Dylan Cockburn, Calum Crookshanks, Jack Dobie, Angus Runciman, Roly Brett, Robbie Chalmers and Adam Hall.

The fellow Borders playing alongside them are Hawick’s Marcus Brogan; Jed-Forest’s Garry Young, Finlay Scott and Mark Glen; Kelso’s Dan Gamble and Angus McGregor; Peebles’ Ross Wolfenden; and Selkirk’s Zen Szwagrzak, Monroe Job and Ethan McVicker, formerly of Lasswade and Melrose.

They’re joined by six Scots from outwith the region and another six players from further afield, four of them from the north-east of England.

Those six Scots are Edinburgh’s Patrick Ritchie, Dunfermline’s Gregor McNeish, Newton Stewart’s Allan and William Ferrie and Musselburgh’s Michael Badenhorst and Sandy Watt.

The Knights’ foreign legion are Durham’s Marcus Rhodes and Callum Grieve, Newcastle’s Bobby Singer, Peterlee’s Ewan Greenlaw, Corbridge’s Jeremy Civil and Ireland’s Callum Davidson.

The five academy players bolstering their ranks are Melrose’s Finn Douglas and Harri Morris, Hawick’s hector Patterson and Edinburgh’s Freddy Douglas and Isaac Coates.

Scotland under-20 No 8 Job, 20, has been named as captain, with former Scottish club international fly-half McNeish, 31, as vice-captain.

Job, McNeish, Gamble, Allan Ferrie, Young, Dobie, Grieve and Hall are all carrying on from the Knights’ last Fosroc Super Series Championship season and Chalmers, Runciman, Scott, Davidson and Crookshanks have all played for the franchise before.

Melrose’s Sam Derrick and Ben Weir and Cumnock’s Craig Greer were set to return from last season’s championship squad but have been ruled out by injury.

No like-for-like replacement for former head coach Alan Tait has been appointed but Melrose head of rugby Rob Moffat will oversee defence coach Iain Chisholm, attack coach Scott Wight and forwards coach James Head.

Knights begin their swan-song campaign this Friday, with kick-off at 7.35pm, at home to Edinburgh A at the Greenyards, and looking ahead to that return to action, Chisholm, 34, said: “I’m really excited about the make-up of the squad.

“We feel we’ve got a real balance of youth and experience, locals and also some big players coming in that will add real impact.

“We know the sprint will be a tough competition, with challenging opponents each week, no less so than Edinburgh A to get things going, but the squad have really come together over the pre-season and are going to take no backwards steps as we look to kick off the sprint with a bang.”

Borderers playing elsewhere include Melrose’s Craig Jackson at Stirling Wolves, Jed-Forest’s Mason Cullen at Ayrshire Bulls and Hawick’s Corey Tait and Gala’s Kerr Johnston at head coach Graham Shiel’s Boroughmuir Bears.

The Scottish Rugby Union announced in February that they’ll be winding up the Super Series competitions launched in 2019 this year so the upcoming Super Series Sprint campaign will be the Knights’ last hurrah.

Its the Borderers’ third sprint season and, having ended up bottom of the table both previous times round, they’ll be hoping to avoid a third wooden spoon before calling it a day.

They ended up at the foot of the table after last year’s sprint series with Kelso and Scotland rugby legend Tait as head coach and the year prior’s with Melrose’s Bruce Ruthven as gaffer.

They only picked up one point after losing all six of their fixtures in 2023 and ended up without any points whatsover despite winning one game in 2022 – by 19-14 at home to Edinburgh’s Heriot’s that June – as they were sanctioned five points for breaching the competition’s rules.

Edinburgh A’s visit will be followed by further home games against Boroughmuir on Saturday, April 27, at 3pm, and Edinburgh’s Watsonians on Saturday, May 4, at 5pm.

Their first away-day is on Saturday, May 18, to Ayrshire Bulls, winners of 2023’s sprint series, and they’ve got another on Saturday, May 25, to Edinburgh’s Heriot’s, both 3pm kick-offs.

Their final fixture of the regular part of the series is on Friday, May 31, at home to Stirling, with kick-off at 7.35pm.

Those six rounds of regular fixtures will be contested in a traditional league format, with play-offs following on Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8.

​