Graham knows Gala will be a target

THE element of surprise can be a terrific asset, so what happens when that surprise has gone?

That is the question on the lips of many around Gala as George Graham and Scott Nichol prepare for a second season in the top flight after stunning all and sundry with their first term back.

The Maroons claimed the scalp of neighbours Melrose, among others, twice in a season that surpassed the expectations of even the most optimistic of Netherdale diehards.

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Just when it seemed that it might end with little to show for the sterling effort, the team rose again in the RBS Scottish Cup to beat Ayr at Murrayfield and ensure a historic finish to an incredible season.

Graham’s men will also feature in the British and Irish Cup for the first time, welcoming London Scottish to Netherdale for their first game, and so there is little surprise to see a rosy glow around training this week. But Graham has a warning for his men.

“When you come up from the second division you’re wondering how you’re going to be perceived and how you will react,” he said, “but we will have a bullseye on our backsides now. Without a doubt, we benefited from teams under-estimating us last season and that won’t happen again.

“We scraped a win away at Currie and that created some belief, then lost at Ayr, but the boys then showed great courage to bounce back and beat Heriot’s and they went from strength to strength after that. But everyone we beat will be smarting and the ten-team league makes it tougher, so for us it’s about keeping our head above water again.”

Graham may tend towards the pessimist and there is little doubt that his desire to squeeze every drop of effort from his players, to push them into corners and challenge them, and see who comes out fighting, has been at the heart of the Gala revival.

Gala deserved everything they achieved last season, but Graham is right to believe that where last season they were viewed almost jovially as the plucky new boys, the attitude of many visitors to Netherdale now will be that the Borderers with a proud history need pulled down a peg or two.

There have been few new recruits, but the return of centre Chris Auld from long-term injury will be like a new signing, when the SRU finally allow 
him to play. Graham was chasing a Samoan set up for a move to Scotland by club captain Opeta Palepoi, but that has foundered with the player needing to stay in New Zealand for another year unbroken to complete his nationalisation process.

But Graham Bryce is back, Danny Owenson has moved from Musselburgh, and Calum McIntosh from Boroughmuir, and the emergence of Graham’s own boys, Gary and George, will be intriguing to watch, the scrum-half having impressed Glasgow on a week’s training in France recently.

The coach added: “It will be very tough. The surprise has gone, but we have talented lads who all want to win things.”

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