Southern Knights’ wait for first win of rugby’s Super Series Sprint win goes on but head coach Alan Tait heartened by fighting spirit

The hosts fought back from being 33-7 down at half-time at Melrose’s Greenyards to match the table-topping capital outfit’s points tally after the break, and Tait reckons that spirit and resilience bode well for the remainder of the series.

Another daunting test awaits the Borderers in round four of the series, however, as next up after hosting the only side still unbeaten is a visit from the team second to them, Ayrshire Bulls.

Bulls go into this coming Saturday’s match, kicking off at 5pm and being streamed live on Scottish Rugby and BBC Sport Scotland’s websites, on ten points from three fixtures, ten more than the Knights, currently bottom of the table.

The hosts’ tries at the weekend were scored by Allan Ferrie, Rory Brand and Ben McLean, with Callum Grieve converting all three.

Touching down for their visitors, managed by former Knights boss Rob Chrystie, were West Linton’s Patrick Harrison at the double, Matt Currie, Cameron Jones, Angus Williams, Jerry Blyth-Lafferty and Lewis Wells, with Bruce Houston adding six conversions.

“There were definitely signs of encouragement in the second half,” said former Scottish international Tait, 58.

“It was a draw the second half, 14-all, and we gave away two softies.

“The first half was a real eye-opener for a lot of the guys.

“Edinburgh are a very strong team and our lads are just coming out of club rugby in a lot of cases, with some uni lads in there.

“A lot of these lads are stepping up from club rugby and it’s a fair step up for them week in, week out. With one-off games, you can kind of get away with it but when you’re doing it every week, it takes its toll.”

“It’s tough, but I look for performance and spirit. We’re not obsessed with winning as it’s more about development.

“We’re looking to perform every week and that’s what we’re doing.

“We’ve changed a lot of combinations just to have a look at different players in different positions to get towards a settled team.

“The team we put out on Saturday was getting to what our strongest line-up would look like.”

Chrystie, 45, wasn’t the only familiar face among the visiting party as his side also fielded once and future Knight Rudi Brown and fellow ex-Melrose player Finn Douglas as well as including Hawick’s Ethan Reilly and Dalton Redpath, another ex-Knight, among their replacements.

Looking ahead to Bulls’ visit, Tait added: “They’re a big, strong mob – they always have been – and there are a lot of older players with experience there, so they’ll be a decent outfit.”

Edinburgh A and Glasgow Warriors A now drop out of the series, meaning that Knights get the likes of Brown and Douglas back.