Super6 ‘sprint’ to give semi-pro players action starts next month

Scottish Rugby hoping that a full tournament can begin in spring 2021

Chris Paterson will present a series of magazines. Picture: Bill Murray/SNS/SRU

Scottish Rugby has announced that the part-time professional Super6 competition will start next month and again be supported by contruction firm FOSROC.

The union is now working towards a start date of 31 October as part of Stage 6 of the Return to Rugby Roadmap. However it stressed that it will only progress to stages 5 and 6 if it is safe to do so and has been approved by the Scottish Government.

The tournament will be a shortened version of the competition entitled the FOSROC Super6 Sprint Series. The aim is to complete the sprint series on 5 December, giving the franchise teams an opportunity to play competitive matches before a full Super6 fixture card can resume in the spring of 2021.

The teams, Ayrshire Bulls, Boroughmuir Bears, Heriot’s Rugby, Southern Knights, Stirling County and Watsonians will compete over six weeks with teams playing each other once. The final weekend at the start of December will see the first placed team host the second, third hosting fourth and fifth hosting sixth.

Scottish Rugby’s Super6 lead, Sean Lineen said: “This is a great opportunity for all FOSROC Super6 squad players to return to competitive rugby and will provide much needed game time for a number of Scotland U20 players.

“It’s fantastic that FOSROC are once again supporting the Super6 programme, in doing so they help to support in bridging the gap between the amateur and professional game.”

FOSROC CEO Ian Watt said: “We are delighted to continue our support of the FOSROC Super6: A significant number of young players were provided with the opportunity to play part-time professional rugby in year one, we look forward to seeing the tournament develop over the next couple of years.”

Scottish Rugby’s Head of Commercial, Al Kellock said “We are delighted FOSROC is extending its partnership over the next two years, as well as, continuing to support our FOSROC Academies – especially in these challenging times. Scottish Rugby and FOSROC share a goal to create as many opportunities to develop young Scottish players both on and off the park as possible and we look forward to working with Ian and his team.”

This shortened tournament will also be supported by a series of video magazine programmes hosted by former Scotland full-back Chris Paterson. He will be joined by guests from each of the clubs to look back at games from the previous weekend.

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