Rugby: Boroughmuir ‘need to sort out defence’ after hitting rock bottom

Boroughmuir are today bottom of the Scottish Rugby Premiership having conceded more than 30 points for the fourth time in five outings, this time at Gala on Saturday.

And experienced stand off Ally Warnock has issued a rallying call after the latest 36-27 defeat, insisting: “We are in a dogfight now.”

Next up for Boroughmuir, whose only success came away at Aberdeen, is a home clash with middle-of-the-table Stirling County. Warnock added: “We need to sort out our defence. We can’t go on conceding like that. We need to look after the ball a bit better.”

Discipline is also becoming an issue for Boroughmuir who had Edinburgh pros George Turner and Sep Visser sin-binned while Gala were able to romp into a 21-0 lead.

Eventually Boroughmuir closed the gap to a point and with momentum might have been expected to overhaul the Borderers. Instead, Warnock said: “We switched off. Having won the kick-off at 21-20 we made a break – then knocked on. We have to retain the ball longer and put teams under pressure.

“Everybody has to look at themselves.”

Nobody could have done more for Boroughmuir than second row Will Kay who claimed a hat-trick of tries but was still left despondent.

Kay told the Boroughmuir website: “You could tell when we stepped off the bus it didn’t feel like everybody’s head was there. You could see that in the warm up and we got punished for it. We are just not competing enough. We need to stand up a little.”