STIRLING WOLVES have been boosted by the release by Glasgow Warriors of former Scotland stand-off Duncan Weir as they look to pick up their first win on this Super6 Championship campaign at the eighth time of asking away to Boroughmuir Bears tonight.
Weir comes straight into the starting XV at No.10 with Wolves captain Marcus Holden shifting out to the No.12 slot to replace the injured Alex Thom in an otherwise unchanged backline.
Wolves are also bolstered up front by the release of Murphy Walker, who toured South America with Scotland this summer, to play tight-head prop, with George Bresse being relegated to the bench.
However, Max Williamson – who is also a full-time pro with Warriors after graduating from the academy during the summer, but who hasn’t played for the senior side yet – is not released this week, so his place in the second-row is taken by Hamish Ferguson
"We have a settled side after a much-improved performance last time out against league leaders Watsonians saw us in the lead at 50 minutes," said head coach Ben Cairns. "However, inaccuracies when we had momentum really cost us through the final 20 minutes of that match.
"Whilst we were disappointed not to pick up our first win of the season, the boys took a lot out of that performance, and it’s been an energized group in training this week. The challenge now is to recreate that same feeling on the road against one of the form sides.”
Boroughmuir are currently third in the table and come into this match on a high after a stirring fightback win away to Heriot’s last Saturday, but head coach Graham Shiel has been forced into making seven personnel and three positional changes which is bound to upset the team’s rhythm.
The Meggetland men have lost three Warriors pros from last week in full-back Josh McKay, winger Rufus McLean and No 8 Gregor Brown.
Boroughmuir Bears (v Stirling Wolves, Meggetland, Friday 7.45pm): T Brown; K Johnston, D Munn, S Robeson, J Jordan; J Bergin, R Swan; M Jones, J Blyth Lafferty, C McFeat Smith, J Fisher, C Atkinson, L McConnell, S McGinley, C Keddie (C). Replacements: I Carmichael, B Sweet, M Goodwin, L Alessandri, T Andrews, M Johnstone, P Bogie, A Scott.
Stirling Wolves: C Robertson; L Jarvie, R Southern, M Holden (C), W Fifita; D Weir, G Christie; A Wood, A Fraser, M Walker, J Pow, H Ferguson, J Hill, G Hiddleston, B Grant. Replacements: R Tanner, G Breese, C Norrie, H McLeod, G Arnott, F Burgess, L Brims, E Cunningham.
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 here