Southern Knights still waiting for first win of new rugby campaign but head coach Bruce Ruthven heartened by signs of improvement

Back-row player Wallace Nelson on the charge for Southern Knights against Watsonians, supported by Harry Borthwick, on Saturday (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

The Borderers were beaten 29-20 by Edinburgh’s Watsonians at their Greenyards home ground in Melrose on Saturday after losing 41-24 away to Heriot’s the weekend before.

Ruthven was heartened by signs of improvement shown by his side during that game, though, and is optimistic they’ll be better still in round three if they can cut out the unforced errors currently letting them down.

Stand-off Nathan Chamberlain got 15 of Knights’ 20 points at the weekend with a try, two penalties and two conversion, a try by Billy Wara accounting for the remainder.

Southern Knights in possession against Watsonians (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

On the scoresheet for their visitors were Ryan Daly, Murray Scott and Cal Davies with tries, plus a penalty try, and ex-Knight Jason Baggott with two conversions and a penalty.

“It was a definite improvement on the week before, and obviously that’s what we’re after,” said Ruthven.

“We need to keep moving forward and developing and taking edges off our game.

“However, we were disappointed by the number of unforced errors we made throughout the game, and also our game management at times let us down, so there’s certainly a lot of work to be done.

Southern Knights and Watsonians vying for the ball at the Greenyards in Melrose (Photo: Simon Wootton/SNS Group/SRU)

“We probably should have got more out of the game. The game was there to be won, and we had defenders beaten and four really good opportunities to score.

“I’m disappointed but, looking at the big picture, it was a definite improvement from the week before and the guys will have taken a lot of heart from that.

“Every day’s a school day for a lot of these guys at the moment, and some of the guys haven’t played for five months as well so they’re obviously going to a bit rusty and it’ll take them a bit of time to get back up to speed.

“Generally, with quite a young squad and quite a change in the personnel making up the squad, it’s going to take time, and that was evident last week, it was evident on Saturday and it’ll be evident for the next wee while, but as long as we can continue to make improvements, we’ll be on the right course.”

Watsonians halting a Southern Knights attack at the Greenyards in Melrose on Saturday (Photo by Simon Wootton/SNS Group/SRU)

Looking ahead to this week’s game against Stirling County, Ruthven said: “That’ll be another challenge for us.

“They’ve got a young squad as well so we’re expecting quite a lot of rugby to played, quite an open game, and it’s a Friday night as well so we’ll be finishing the game under floodlights.

“It’s quite a nice spectacle for our players and supporters. There’s a different feel about a Friday night game.

“We need to be making improvements again and it would be nice to get our first win of the campaign.”

This Friday’s game, kicking off at 7.45pm, is being broadcast live on FreeSports and Scottish Rugby’s website, https://www.scottishrugby.org/

Two further games will follow – at home to Ayrshire Bulls on Saturday, May 7, at 4.30pm and away to Boroughmuir Bears on Friday, May 20, at 7.45pm – before the series table splits in two.