Like prime ministers, orchestra conductors and of course policemen, Premiership club coaches appear to be younger these days as a new class of more youthful mentors from a professional background have taken over at the top end of the club game.
At 29, and in his first season as head coach at Currie, the former Scotland and Edinburgh centre, Ben Cairns, is one of new breed, that includes the likes of Calum Forrester at Ayr, John Dalziel at Melrose, Nikki Walker at Hawick and Steve Lawrie at Heriot's.
Cairns, who played seven times for Scotland and who made over one hundred appearances for Edinburgh was forced out of the professional game after sustaining a career ending knee injury, has now sublimated his enthusiasm for the game into coaching.
It has been a testing season for Cairns but the former Royal High School pupil has already achieved a high grade by taking Currie to the Premiership play-offs after victory of Glasgow Hawks last weekend. Now, however, comes an altogether more difficult examination today at Goldenacre where Currie face Heriot's in the play-off semi final.
"Every match seems to cap the one before," suggested Cairns, who is encouraged by Currie's recent form. "We've had a good run beating Melrose, Stirling, Ayr and then Hawks. And we can take a lot of confidence from our last two matches against Heriot's. We lost both by a total of only four points.
"Heriot's are the only side we've not beaten this season," observed Cairns, who believes victory will depend on more than physical attributes. "The semi final will be all about going into the match with a winning mindset. But what it will come down to is the team that executes skills under pressure." observed Cairns.
Currie will be helped by the presence of Glasgow Warriors' Peter Murchie at full back providing safety under the high ball and directness in running. The Malleny Park side also have the Warriors' prop Mike Cusack and Warriors' hooker, Kevin Bryce, on the bench, meaning that the game will have brothers on opposing sides, with the former Stirling player Glenn Bryce named at full back for Heriot's. Another former County man, Jason Hill, moves from back row to lock for Heriot's, joining another back back row Jack Turley.
The Goldenacre men, who field a pacy back division and who have a strong bench, finished a whopping twenty two points above Currie in the Premiership but that gap will count for nothing today in Scottish club rugby's first ever play-off. And will it be viewed as a successful innovation?
"Even before we thought we could be in the top four I thought it was a good idea. Most leagues in the world have play-offs. I think it gives excitement and sustains interest," says Cairns, who will be even more in favour if his underdog Currie side upset the pecking order this afternoon.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article