Tennent's Shield
Selkirk it seems have become synonomous with Tennent's Cup final day. Two years ago, the Soutars lost to Edinburgh Academicals in the final of the Bowl, last year they won the competition by defeating Biggar, and today they are back at the national stadium in the final of the Tennent's Shield against Berwick.
It is the experience of playing in the last two Murrayfield finals that could count a lot for Selkirk, victory for whom would cap a successful season in which they achieved promotion to division two of the premiership.
The core of their winning side will be back at the international ground, among them wingers Darren Hulme and Mike Jaffray, and centre Alistair Dickson, the powerful Scotland Under-21 cap.
Selkirk can be expected to base much of their game around the running of Dickson and the support play of a swift back row in which skipper Paul Minto will provide the core experience.
For Berwick, one of only two clubs to be affiliated to both the Scottish Rugby Union and the Rugby Football Union, playing at Murrayfield today will represent another big step in a recent history that has been all about progress.
Next season, Berwick will enjoy premiership status after achieving promotion from division one of the national league and after a spectacular climb since winning the Edinburgh district league in season 1990/91.
That they deserve to be in the premiership was seen by their quarter final 38-8 win over Stewart's-Melville in the quarter-finals and their 20-16 victory over Stewartry in the semis.
Berwick today will field a team that has experience in lock John Simmons (35) and centre David Meakin (34), both who have been with Berwick throughout their rugby careers.
Youth will be represented by the exciting scrum half Mark Lee and the Border Reivers Under-19 wing Colin Young.
Such has been the pace of Berwick's achievements over the past few seasons that the sheer momentum of success could carry them to victory in the Shield.
Selkirk, however, will consider that Murrayfield virtually confers on them home advantage and that might just tip it for the Soutars.
Berwick-B McCreath; A Lynn, T McCreath, D Meakin, C Young; M Hindhaugh, M Lee; K Jackson, W Barton, G Holborn, G Younger, J Simmons, W Moor, S Gilchrist, N Williamson (captain). Replacements - M Broadbent, R Redpath, J Reavley, P Weatherhead, G Watson, T Sanderson.
Selkirk - D Hunter; D Hulme, C Cochrane, A Dickson, M Jaffray; G Blair, G Thomson; S McColm, D Hogan, J Reihana, K McConnell, M Barnett, M Mairns, A Mabon, P Minto (captain). Replacements - D Anderson, A Linton, B Gentleman, D Cameron, I Purves, E Robbie.
Referee K Harrower (Forrester FP).
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