Club XV fixture to return next year as Ireland and Scotland compete for Dalriada Trophy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\nVenue: Poynder ParkKick-off time:\u00a03pm<\/p>\n
Teams \u2013<\/p>\n
Kelso: A Barbour; A Utterson, A Hall, F Robson, H Tweedie; D Patterson, A Tait; A McGregor, E Knox, D Gamble \u00a9, E Thompson, C Thompson, B McNeil, W Jones, Bruce McNeil. Subs: H Ross, G Shiells, N Barnes, J Thompson, W Tweedie, A Milne, G Cessford.<\/p>\n
GHA:\u00a0F Jackson; G Mollinson, C Lonergan, N Thompson, R Nolan; T Lonergan, E McKirdy; S Collins, R Campbell, M Fox, A Kerr, S Callaghan, S Plumridge, D Ewing \u00a9, L McCutcheon.\u00a0Subs: M Conroy, C Stewart, J Davies, O Lonergan Black, B Curtis, A Bogidrau, C Thomson.<\/p>\n
Referee: Michael Todd<\/p>\n
Key clash: Will Jones versus Dario Ewing<\/p>\n
Team news \u2013<\/p>\n
Kelso: Skipper Dwain Patterson is back from playing for Scimitar Storm guest side at the International Invitation Men\u2019s tournament at Dubai 7s last week to resume in the No 10 shirt in place of Edinburgh Academy playmaker Isaac Coates. Billy McNeil swaps in at blindside flanker for the benched Nick Barnes.<\/p>\n
GHA: Grant Mollinson is welcomed back into the squad following an injury picked up late in pre-season and he is joined in the back-three with Fraser Jackson starting at full-back. Tom Lonergan continues at stand-off in the absence of Andrew Goudie. In the pack, experienced Sam Collins and Michael Fox start for Oli McKenna and Jackson Rennie who are on Scotland Under-20s duty.<\/p>\n
Coaches\u2019 comments \u2013<\/p>\n
Kelso co-coach\u00a0Bruce McNeil\u00a0said:<\/p>\n
GHA have already taken two border scalps away from home this season and won all Borders matches at home so far so this is a very tough assignment for us. We are back at home in what feels like a must win game. Last week\u2019s performance was way below par and it\u2019s up to us as a group of players to take responsibility for that and to put those demons to bed this Saturday in front of our great home support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
GHA head coach\u00a0Calum Forrester\u00a0said:<\/p>\n
Having been in control for huge spells of the game down at Melrose, it was very frustrating to come away with nothing. We need to be more clinical, finish our chances in the 22, and be a bit more streetwise than we have been in recent weeks. This Saturday will be another huge test for this group of players. Kelso are particularly strong at home and will be hurting after their loss to Hawick, so we will need to be at the top of our game to get a result this weekend.<\/p>\n
TOL verdict: There is bound to be a reaction after last weekend\u2019s loss at Hawick, and the Poynder factor will bolster Kelso\u2019s hunger to deliver a statement performance, while back-to-back trips to the Borders will inevitably have a draining effect on a GHA side whose inner-steel is being rigorously tested coming out of that long winning streak. Home win.<\/p>\n
Venue: PhiliphaughKick-off time:\u00a03pm<\/p>\n
Teams \u2013<\/p>\n
Selkirk: C Anderson; J Welsh, B Allan, R Nixon, B Pickles; E Wilson, H Alderson; G Paxton, C Tait co-\u00a9, B Riddell, A McColm co-\u00a9, J Fisher, M Job, B Stewart, K Westlake. Subs: J Bett, S Murray, R Joyce, T Wilson, O McClymont, A Grant-Suttie, R MacDonnell.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawick: C Welsh; O Gray, A Mitchell, G Huggan, C McLeod; L Armstrong, Z Lewis; S Muir, F Renwick \u00a9, N Little, S Fairbairn, H Donaldson, G Welsh, M Swailes, C Sutherland. Subs: F Kinnaird, C Crawley, M Renwick, D Redpath, C Riddell, K Brunton, F Douglas.<\/p>\n
Referee: Daniel Evans<\/p>\n
Key clash: Braden Stewart versus Mikey Swailes<\/p>\n
Team news \u2013<\/p>\n
Selkirk: Kieran Westlake comes back into the starting team at No 8 with Braden Stewart switching to the openside and Taylor Wilson dropping to the bench. With Ross Wolfenden is away with the Under-20s, Ethan Wilson moves from the bench to starting stand-off. Stephen Murray is available again to be a front-row replacement, and Andrew Grant-Suttie returns after a few weeks out and will look to add punch to the backline when he comes on.<\/p>\n
Hawick: Same starting XV as took on and defeated Kelso, with Kyle Brunton (who was a a late call-off last week), Cian Riddell and the highly experienced Dalton Redpath added to the bench.<\/p>\n
Coaches\u2019 comments \u2013<\/p>\n
Selkirk head coach Gordon Henderson\u00a0said:<\/p>\n
Another massive game for us this week against a Hawick team that had an excellent win against Kelso last week. They have experience in the forwards and they have a backline that can apply pressure if given space. If we are to get success out of this week\u2019s Borders encounter we will need to take our game to another level with control and discipline to gain the success that we need especially at Philiphaugh.<\/p>\n
Hawick head coach\u00a0Graham Hogg\u00a0said:<\/p>\n
Last week was a typically stuffy Borders derby and we know that this week will be no different. Selkirk are fighting for survival in the same way that we are, so I\u2019m sure it is going to be a physical encounter, especially if we get the forecasted conditions. It is the first time we have been able to name the same starting XV, and with reinforcements on the bench, we are hopefully set for another positive result to take us further away from the bottom of the table.<\/p>\n
TOL verdict: Expect skin and hair, with no quarter asked nor given. The belief last week\u2019s win will have given Hawick makes them marginal favourites. Away win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venue: BalgrayKick-off time:\u00a02pm Teams \u2013 Glasgow Hawks:\u00a0E Muirhead; J Hastings, D Barrie, G Cruickshank, L Jarvie; F Thomson,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[89567,89568,54026,89569,89570,89571,89572,89573,89574,5903,89575,101,56,54,55,89576],"class_list":["post-301018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-ayr-rfc","tag-currie-chieftains","tag-divi","tag-gha-rfc","tag-glasgow-hawks-rfc","tag-hawick-rfc","tag-heriots-rugby-club","tag-kelso-rfc","tag-melrose-rfc","tag-rugby","tag-selkirk-rfc","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-watsonians-rfc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n