Win v South of Scotland makes it a happy birthday for Gala

Glenn McCrum and Ben Gill scored for head coach Ewen Robbie’s Maroons at their Netherdale home ground, with Hamish Seggie adding one conversion, and Jack Fisher touched down an unconverted consolation try for opposite number Gordon Henderson’s guests.

That was the South’s first stand-alone XVs fixture for almost nine years and only their fifth this century.

It was also their first game against fellow Borderers and their first defeat of any description on home turf since their revival in 2009 after 13 years in abeyance.

Their last one, followed by eight inter-district rugby championship fixtures since May 2023, saw a team captained by Gala fly-half Gregor Hunter beat Caledonia Reds 40-24 at Stirling’s Bridgehaugh Park in November 2017.

That was only their fourth 15-a-side game of the 21st century, following wins by 33-7 against Reds in Jedburgh in November 2016, 22-15 versus the Barbarians in Hawick in October 2011 and 37-3 hosting Northumberland in Galashiels in December 2009.

Starting for the hosts and their reinforcements on Saturday were Cameron Brydon at full-back, wingers Gill and Ritchie Mitchell, centres John Turnbull and Reagon Moloy, Seggie at fly-half, Kye Jones at scrum-half, a front row of Gavin Fisher, Connor McKay and Michael Angus, middle row of Mac Rutherford and McCrum and back row of Russell Anderson, Robbie Irvine and captain Craig Keddie.

Their replacements were Rowan Chalmers, Bruce McNeil, Luke Pettie, Kyle and Sam Scott, Grant Stevenson, Gregor Collins, Jordan Edmunds, Eddie Eyre, Jack Harrison, Gavin Lockhart, Jack Niven, James Thomson and Rory Wilson.

The South’s starters were Charlie Welsh at No 15, Donald Crawford on the right wing and Ben Pickles on the left, Brodie Allan at inside-centre and captain Andrew Mitchell at outside, Kyle Brunton at No 10 and Hugo Alderson at No 9, Grant Paxton at loosehead prop and Bruce Riddell at tighthead, Euan Knox at hooker, Garry Young and Jack Fisher as locks, Connor Sutherland at No 8 and Taylor Wilson as openside flanker and Sam Derrick at blindside.

On their bench were Harris Ross, Hamish Tweedie, Ashton Asante, Connor Crawley, Hughie Donaldson, Ronan McKean, Andrew Cochrane and Douglas Crawford.

Arnold Clark National League Division 1 newcomers Selkirk were the club best represented in a South match-day squad featuring eight debutants, accounting for eight of their 23-strong line-up – Allan, Pickles, Alderson, Taylor Wilson, Jack Fisher, Riddell, Paxton and Cochrane.

Hawick, one of their Arnold Clark Premiership rivals of last season, were next best represented with seven selections – Mitchell, Welsh, Sutherland, Brunton, Crawley, Donaldson and, returning from injury, McKean.

Fellow top-flight teams Kelso and Melrose supplied four players and three respectively – the former contributing Knox, Ross, Asante and Tweedie and the latter the Crawfords and Derrick – with Jed-Forest’s Young being the only representative of National 1 as it was.

Winning captain and former South player Keddie was chuffed to bits to have come out on top against the red-and-white-hooped regional representatives, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “Days like today are pretty special so I’m delighted to have been part of it and it’s something I’ll remember for a long time.

“I did manage to play for the South two years ago when they won the championship up at Highland, which was a great occasion, so to then play against them is almost unique.

“I said before the game that we could make a memory today as the South hadn’t lost on Borders soil this millennium and a Gala team managed to do that to them, thanks to guys like Russell coming in and shoring us up.

“Everyone showed a great attitude from one to 80 minutes and we deserved to win.”

Losing skipper Mitchell added: “The conditions played a big part and we had a lot of fresh faces in, boys that hadn’t been involved in the inter-district championship, whereas Gala have been together all year and their structures worked better.

“We’d only had an hour’s training on Tuesday night but I’m not making any excuses – Gala wanted it more than us and that’s the bottom line.

“Gala defended their line very, very well and the hunger was there. A couple of mistakes, dropped balls, let them back in it and they rode out the storm, got back up the pitch, pinned us in and they took their points and chances when it mattered.

“Gala deserved it – they were hungrier, they wanted it more from the first minute.

“A positive for us is that there were a lot of boys who’ve now been exposed to the South jersey, so going forward, that’s only going to bode well for us. There were a lot of young players there who would maybe have had to wait a while but having a game like this meant they managed to get their chance and I thought a lot of them stood up and didn’t look out of place.”