THE four teams who will compete in the inaugural Super6 play-offs has been decided with one week of the regular season still to play. Southern Knights booked the fourth and final semi-final slot with a handsome 31-10 win over Stirling County at The Greenyards yesterday afternoon, joining Heriot’s, Watsonians and Ayrshire Bulls in the end of campaign jamboree – although who will play against who won’t be decided until the final games are completed in two weeks’ time.
Hooker Fraser Renwick, stand-off Jason Baggott, flanker Ruaridh Knott, replacement hooker Russell Anderson and No 8 Neil Irvine-Hess got the tries for Southern Knights on this occasion, with Baggot kicking three conversion. Stirling’s points came through tries for Landon Hayes and Caleb Korteweg.
The bonus-point victory carries on a remarkable change in fortunes for the Borderers since the turn of the year, when they sat bottom of the table with just a solitary draw to show from their five games to that point. Since then they have won four league games on the bounce, and they will head into their final league match away to table-toppers Watsonians in a fortnight’s time high in confidence.
“There wasn’t a lot in it,” said victorious head coach Rob Chrystie. “Stirling were a little bit unlucky in that first half. They could have come away with a lot more points.
“We talked at halftime about not relying on the wind to get you over the line. We managed to play the conditions well and we defended very well. We did give away a lot of penalties at times but once we were in there, we looked dominant. Stirling defended very well and made us work really hard for our tries.
“There’s been a bit of criticism about our pack, but I thought they did really well today. They’re beginning to answer a few questions which is great.”
Saturday’s Super6 match between Boroughmuir Bears and Ayrshire Bulls was postponed due to a water-logged Meggetland pitch and appears likely to be rescheduled for next weekend.
Two Premiership matches also fell victim to Storm Dennis, with water-logged pitches causing the Glasgow Hawks versus Hawick encounter at Balgray and the Edinburgh Accies versus Marr fixture at Raeburn Place to be postponed.
The three matches which went ahead did so in fairly gruesome conditions. Prop Harry Meadows was man-of-the-match and centre Robbie Youston scored 29 points as Jed-Forest secured an emphatic 52-10 win over GHA which eased their relegation concerns, while Musselburgh’s gritty 12-12 home draw with Selkirk could be crucial for them in the battle to avoid the drop. Currie Chieftains defeated Aberdeen Grammar 17-26 at Rubislaw.
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