Boroughmuir

Scottish Rugby’s performance partnership with newly-promoted Federale 1 team Stade Nicois will continue this season, with five new players set to join the Alpes-Maritimes side for the forthcoming campaign.

Response to this week’s news about the SRU’s “Super 6” must surely be “we’ll have to wait and see”. No doubt the members of the panel, chaired by Sir Bill Gammell, who had the task of assessing the twelve bidding clubs, and selecting the Six that will set sail on the uncharted ocean of officially approved semi-pro rugby, will have adhered scrupulously to the criteria they were handed. Nevertheless, it seems wrong – even ridiculous – that three of the “chosen six” are Edinburgh clubs, that there is no Glasgow one, and that Stirling County is the most northerly club selected. For years we have bewailed the narrow base of Scottish rugby. Now Ayr is to be the only Super 6 club more than a drive and a chip from Murrayfield. This is a weird way to grow the game.

The Scottish Rugby Union ignored its own compliance guidelines when it awarded three of its Super 6 franchises to clubs in Edinburgh, The Scotsman has learned.

The winning bids may now be known but lots of questions remain over what impact, positive or negative, the watershed creation of the Super 6 will have on the landscape of Scottish rugby.

The SRU has received 12 applications from clubs to form franchises in the new part-time professional Super 6 league which is due to launch in the 2019/20 season.

Boroughmuir live to fight another season in the BT Premiership after securing a bonus-point win over Glasgow Hawks.

Boroughmuir built themselves a game-winning platform by half-time but then were muscled out of it as Watsonians got up to full power with a hat-trick of tries to leave the hosts hanging on to protect a vital losing bonus point, writes William Paul.

Watsonians advanced to the last four of the BT Cup when they posted a dramatic victory over a battling Boroughmuir side that had showed plenty of character to square matters.

Boroughmuir coach Peter Wright emerged from the dressing room after his players dismantled a bewildered, tactically poor Stirling, relishing the knowledge that victory had earned them a shot at survival in the Premiership with three games left to play.

Boroughmuir more than halved the eight-point difference between the teams to keep their hopes of escaping the relegation zone alive with only three Premiership games left to play.

Hawick eased themselves further into the safety zone of the BT Premiership after achieving their third successive championship win this year with a characterful victory over fellow relegation-threatened side Boroughmuir.

Determined defence and an ability to punish opponents’ errors carried Boroughmuir to victory in this basement battle.

The Chieftains consolidated their claim to a play-off place with the summary dismissal of relegation-haunted Boroughmuir as the BT Premiership got under way in 2018.

The year ahead promises to be an interesting one for rugby. The best two teams in world rugby will meet for the first time since 2014 and either New Zealand or England will get a huge boost one year out from the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Edinburgh Rugby’s European Challenge Cup clash against London Irish tonight has been switched to BT Murrayfield.

Twenty points in the first 19 minutes set up Melrose for their 11th league win on the spin in this cracking clash in Edinburgh.

Glasgow Hawks scored two tries in the last two minutes to win this thriller against Boroughmuir at Meggetland.

Watsonians took all five league points with a victory over their near-neighbours in an entertaining encounter. The hosts had to fight back from conceding two early tries to take the honours and did so with a clinical edge that their opponents failed to match.