WATSONIANS only need a single match point against Stirling County tonight to become Super6 Sprint Series champions after winning all six of their matches in the tournament to date. But needless to say, while a draw or even certain narrow defeats would be enough for the Myreside men, they are going all out to claim the title in altogether more convincing fashion.
On paper at least, they look to be in a strong position to do so, having been boosted by the availability of several Edinburgh players. Harrison Courtney, Angus Williams, Mesu Kunavula and Connor Boyle all start in the pack for Fergus Pringle’s side, while Matt Currie - named in the Scotland squad this week - is at centre.
Nonetheless, games between the two clubs have been close affairs both this season and last, and head coach Pringle has great respect for his opponents, who became the only team capable of seizing the crown from his own side after they beat the Ayrshire Bulls two weeks ago.
“Stirling have played some great rugby in the competition and their last-minute win against Ayr showed their never-say-die attitude,” he said. “For us as a group, this competition has been about trying to get better each game. Play-off games are about producing your best on the big occasion and our squad will turn up determined to do that.”
Stirling coach Ben Cairns, who has named Glasgow winger Walter Fifita in his back division, has been encouraged by the defiant attitude of his players in recent weeks.
“We have given ourselves a chance and go into the match with the belief that we can beat the odds,” he said.
With Myreside unavailable, this evening’s game is being held at Meggetland. Tomorrow’s final match in the series, fifth-placed Heriot’s ‘home’ fixture against fourth-placed Boroughmuir, is also at the Bears’ ground, as Goldenacre, too, is unavailable.
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