JUST three weeks shy of full two years after the league was initially launched, Super6 will finally have its first champions by the close of play today, with Ayrshire Bulls and Southern Knights set to fight it out in the 2021 season 1st/2nd place play-off final at Edinburgh’s DAM Health Stadium on the back pitches of Murrayfield.
Watsonians were the dominant force in the inaugural Super6 season, before it was declared null and void in response to the Covid pandemic in March 2020, and they started this campaign in the same impressive form when they beat the Bulls at Millbrae in round one back in early August.
However, a combination of injuries to key players and others moving on to the pro game meant the Myreside men fell away during the second half of the season, although they did manage beat a depleted Bulls team last weekend then hold off a late Stirling County surge on Friday night to claim a third-place finish.
The Bulls and Knights, meanwhile, grew stronger and stronger over the course of this season, securing their position as the top two teams with one round of matches still to play. While the Bulls were not at the races against Watsonians last week – they didn’t need to be – you can bet they will come out all guns blazing this afternoon.
Pat MacArthur’s men will be looking to replicate their form from a fortnight ago when they beat the Knights in a rugged battle on a wet and windy night at Millbrae, although the head coach was reluctant to read much into that.
“Yeah, we did very well – we won – great, but you have to put that behind you,” he said. “They’ll take learnings out of that and get better as a result, and we have to do the same.
“It was a tough, really physical game, which was literally on a knife-edge throughout. I believe that they are two very well-matched teams, and it will be on a knife-edge again this weekend. So, we need to stick to our guns if we want to come out on top.”
The playing surface this afternoon will be similar to the 4G pitch the Knights now train and play on at The Greenyards, but MacArthur doesn’t see that being a decisive factor in the opposition’s favour.
“You don’t let the pitch change your team and the way you want to play rugby,” he reasoned. “Yes, they are fairly used to it, they train on it and will understand how it feels under foot, but we have the ability to train on 4G pitches down by us.”
The conditions will hopefully be better today than they were a fortnight ago, but it is unlikely that this will facilitate an exhibition of champagne rugby.
“Both teams have got some really strong, dynamic players,” concluded Knights head coach Rob Chrystie. “It’s going to be a bit of a battle. There will be pressure on people – on certain people more than others – and to a certain degree it will be who flinches first.”
Meanwhile, Boroughmuir Bears defeated Heriot’s 21-15 in yesterday’s Super6 5th/6thplace play-off at Goldenacre thanks to a brace of tries from Kaleem Baretto and one from Tom Banatlava, all converted by Martin Cimprich.
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