Fixtures

LATEST BORDERS RUGBY NEWS
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July 28th
Several Borders players are among the 55 players who have been awarded contracts with Scottish Rugby's National Academy. 28 of the players have been contracted centrally with the Scottish Rugby Union while the other 27 will be supported by the six area Institutes of Sport. It is hoped that among this season's list there will be a number who will join the six players who went on to win Scottish international caps.

Left to right: Alex Dunbar (Selkirk), Nicky Little (Hawick) and Ryan McConnell (Peebles) - three of the Academy players this season from the Borders

Alex Dunbar (Selkirk) and Nicky Little (Hawick) are the two Borderers who have won contracts with the SRU while Rory Hutton and Robin Hislop (ex Hawick and now with Heriot's and Boroughmuir respectively) are also in the list. It is interesting that there are a few Premier 2 players among the elite, something which many thought would not happen. The AIS supported Academy players from Borders clubs are Craig Jackson (Melrose), Ryan McConnell (Peebles) and Gregor Hunter (Gala).

July 27th
Children in Jedburgh are being given a tremendous opportunity to do something worthwhile with their time during the summer holidays. Jedforest player Greg Walker is also the development officer for Jed and he's co-ordinating a series of four events starting this Friday at Jedburgh Grammar School Astro turf.

"Street Rugby" looks at getting kids off the street at night and onto astro turf where they can throw a rugby ball about and play various conditioned rugby games. The first event starts at 7pm and will continue till 9pm. Friday 31st July will be the first night then on the following three Fridays on August 7th, 14th and 21st. It is hoped that a large number of kids from P7 to S6 will attend.

"The session shall be split into two sections," said Greg. "There shall be rugby being run from 7 until 8 and then the second half of the night shall be football from 8 until 9. This event shall be looking at getting kids off the street and keeping them active during the summer holidays. It is funded by the SRU and 'Cashback for communities' which pays for the use of the astro turf."

Jed's Development Officer Greg Walker launching Street Rugby this Friday

July 25th
Hawick's young prop Nicky Little has decided against a move to Selkirk after all and will instead stay at The Greens for another season. Selkirk have confirmed that David Grieve will be joining them from Jedforest while Watsonians' Daniel Moussa will also be wearing Selkirk colours this season.

July 24th
The Border League will take the same format as the last two years with two pools, and Haddington have been invited back to the table. Click here to view all the Fixtures. The final will take place at Melrose possibly in April but this has yet to be decided. One major change is that there will be no double headers with Premier matches - all the games will be stand alone games. In Pool A will be holders Selkirk, Hawick, Langholm, Jedforest and Kelso, while Pool B will include Gala, Peebles, Berwick, Haddington and Melrose.

The Greenyards, the venue for this season's Border League Final

There was of course a campaign put forward by Langholm member Iain Park supported by Borders Rugby Television to make the Border League a two tier event to give the likes of Berwick and Langholm an opportunity to compete at a more competitive level with the possible addition of Hawick YM into the competition. We also championed the idea of pre-season rugby to combat potential winter call-offs which are likely to happen once again. This, we thought, would stimulate much interest in the media for the competition and get games out of the way to avoid a build up of fixtures when the weather turns bad. To reduce the amount of fixtures played we also suggested double headers to add bite to the existing Premiership 2 fixtures, but this has also been thrown out for the season ahead, along with the scheduling of midweek fixtures.

We still believe that the suggestions for a new format for the Border League are relevant and we hope these will be considered by the clubs in the future. We understand that the proposals were talked about but ultimately the clubs went for a system which, if we have a mild winter, may work perfectly. It will be interesting to see how things pan out and we at BRTV will be committed 100% to covering the world's oldest tournament as we did last year.

July 23rd
Former Samoan international Opeta Palepoi has signed for Gala. The 48-times capped player is no stranger to The Borders, having played for Border Reivers. He also ran out in the Glasgow Warriors and Harlequins colours in what has been a successful and varied career. Watch an interview with Opeta by clicking here.

Former Samoan international Opeta Palepoi in action

July 18th
The draw for the Scottish Hydro Cup, Shield and Bowl competitions has been made. This season the Cup will be contested by Premier clubs only, the Shield will be exclusively for National League sides while the Bowl will be regionalised. Melrose will have to beat Peebles on the road if they are to make a third consecutive appearance at Murrayfield in the local tie of the 1st Round while Selkirk have a rare home tie against GHA. Jedforest also will play at home (against West Of Scotland) while Hawick need to go to Currie for a tough encounter. Gala will play the winners of Irvine v Dunfermline if they beat Morgan on the road in the preliminary round while Kelso have a home game against Biggar in the preliminary round - the winners will get an away game at Howe Of Fife. The first round games will be played on 6th February while the preliminary ties will take place on 21st November.

Melrose and Peebles skippers Scott Wight (left) and Willie Aitken will lead their troops into battle in the Cup; both teams wanting a return to Murrayfield

In the Shield competition no Border team will be required to play in the preliminary round but two of the four local sides have been drawn together. Berwick will play at home against Hawick YM, while Langhom are hosting Glasgow Accies and Hawick Linden are at home to Linlithgow.

In the Bowl regional competition (to be played on 14th November) it's Hawick Harlequins v Queensferry, Earlston v Napier University, Walkerburn v 1 SCOTS and Dunbar v St Boswells in the preliminary round, while both Duns and Gala YM have byes into the 1st Round proper scheduled for 28th November where Duns are away to Dalkeith and Gala YM are at home to Inverleith.

Click to download the full draws in all three competitions.

CUP SHIELD BOWL

July 18th
Hawick have signed Alistair Marsh from Edinburgh Accies for the new season, but many local players are stepping up to the 1st XV squad, including four from Hawick YM (Glyn Desport, Lee Armstrong, Scott McLeod and Dean McCracken), four from Hawick Harlequins (Chris Ritson, Rory McPherson, Finlay Robb and Scott Robson), three from Hawick Wanderers (Craig Russell, Gary Lowrie and Kieran Willison) plus Greg Anderson from Hawick PSA.

Rory Hutton, Stuart Hogg (Wanderers and Hawick 7s) and Graham Hogg are going to play for Heriot's next season, while Nicky Little moves to Selkirk with Wanderers' Robin Hislop heading to Boroughmuir U18s.

Hawick have confirmed it will be pulling out of the Borders 2nd XV league to play in a National 2nd XV competition next season.

July 16th
The future of rugby in Hawick was under discussion at a special meeting this week between representatives of four of the town's clubs. Hawick Linden's new President Gary Alexander, Hawick YM's Doug Waldie, Harlequins' selector Ron Elliot and Hawick RFC secretary John Thorburn got together to discuss the future structure of rugby in Hawick so that everybody benefits. Talking to the Hawick News John Thorburn said: "Player movement, fixtures, travel costs and the number of players playing in Hawick were all topics up for discussion but the main debate of the evening was the need to develop an inter-club framework following the Greens' relegation from the top flight." To this end a rugby forum will take place on November 1st with invites going out to every club in Hawick. All who attended the initial meeting expressed how positive it was. November 1st will certainly be an historic night in the town.

July 15th
Rob Moffat, the Melrose-based coach, has been given the Head Coach position at Edinburgh. He was assistant to Andy Robinson last season and has vast experience within the Scottish Rugby Union set-up. The former wing, 52, will take charge of his first match against the Harlequins in a friendly next month. Meanwhile another Borderer, Gregor Townsend, will continue as one of Scotland's backs coaches.

Former Melrose player Rob Moffat now in charge of the Edinburgh side

July 10th
Adam Roxburgh and Graham Aitchison have stepped down from coaching duties at Kelso, it was announced at the Kelso AGM. Kevin Utterson will continue in his role as captain for another year while Richard Laing steps up to assist 1st Team coaches Eric Paxton and Michael Minto. They will begin the season without three of their top players from last season. Michael Tait and Grant Shiells have gone to Newcastle Falcons, as we reported earlier this month, while Mee Kaa Eel Hartley has also gone.

Left to right: Mee Kaa Eel Hartley has gone but Michael Minto and Eric Paxton continue as coaches of Kelso Rugby Club for the new season

July 9th
Gala Rugby Club have unveiled their new Head Coach as former Scotland international prop George Graham, and he's a man who is no stranger to Netherdale, having assisted Steve Bates at the Border Reivers and before that when playing for Gala as player-coach in 2003-04. He will replace Richie Gray and Gary Parker who left the club a few days ago following a difference of opinion with the executive board on how to take the club forward.

The new Gala coaching team: Ecky Boland and George Graham

The former Scotland forwards coach went to Italy last year to coach Petrarca but Graham found life in Italy difficult and unsettling for his family. There was speculation that he may even be interested in the Edinburgh job vacated by Andy Robinson, but last night he committed himself to Gala for the forthcoming season, and he will be assisted by Ecky Boland, a man who has been in charge of Gala Wanderers during a very successful period and latterly Gala 2nd XV, where he coached them to the Borders 2nd XV title last season.The former Gala scrum half's reward for that is to step up again to first team level.

George told us: "I'm really excited to be back here. I enjoy a good laugh and a crack but I'm deadly serious about my rugby. Discipline is an important thing for me and I expect to work hard and I expect the players to work hard for me. I want to get the best out of all the players."

New Gala President, Colin Playfair, said he was delighted with the appointments. "As I mentioned last week I respect Gary and Richie's decision to leave the club and thank them for their efforts but it's now time to move on. I'm pleased that George and David will lead us into the new season, and both Gregor Townsend and Chris Paterson will also be helping the club out when available, which is tremendous news."

Graham began his playing career at Stirling County in 1987 before switching to rugby league in the early 1990s. When he returned to rugby union he played for Newcastle Falcons in a very successful six year stint before coming to the Reivers in 2002. He won 25 caps for Scotland, including a World Cup appearance in 1999.

Interview with George Graham and Ecky Boland - click here.

Interview with Gala RFC President Colin Playfair - click here.

July 9th
Niall Cubbon will be captain of Langholm RFC for another year, but his vice captain will be Colin Jardine. Walter Hislop has retired as coach - his place has been taken by Rob Little, the Kiwi who was helping Langholm out last season. Kenneth Pool will be President for another year. All positions were announced at the AGM tonight.

Langholm skipper Niall Cubbon will lead his team again this season
Picture courtesy Rob Gray, digitalpic

July 8th
Borders Rugby TV has unveiled one of its new posters for season 2009-10. Designed by local company Johnston Montgomery, the striking new image will be used to advertise BRTV in magazines, rugby programmes and as posters around the clubs. To be one of the first to download and display the poster click here.

July 5th
Plenty of action close season and Hawick's John Coutts and Nick McTaggart are staying at the club. But the Hogg Brothers are off to Heriot's. There's still no news of where Rory Hutton will be playing next season, but Selkirk's Eddie Gauché is on his way back to South Africa soon. Peebles' Tig Jocelyn will return to New Zealand.

Left to right: Eddie Gauché, Tig Jocelyn and John Coutts

July 4th
Ross Ford, the former Kelso High School pupil and Kelso RFC player, became the only Scottish player to play in a Lions test match when he came off the bench to help the British Lions to a 28-9 win in the Third Test against the South Africans. It was only the second time in history that South Africa had lost at Johannesburg in an international so it was a significant result. It also equalled the scoreline of their biggest previous win over the Springboks in 1974.

Former Kelso lad does well! Ross Ford with his Lions jersey

July 3rd
There are some cracking matches to open the new season on Saturday 29th August with Selkirk and Melrose starting their campaigns in Premier 1 with home games against Boroughmuir and Glasgow Hawks respectively. In P2 Jedforest will play against Gala at Riverside Park, Peebles will take on Aberdeen Grammar at home, Kelso will also be at home against GHA but Hawick will travel to Stirling County to take on the other team relegated from the top flight.

In National League 1 Berwick and Langholm are both away - Berwick visit Dalziel while Langholm will visit Livingston, while in NL2 Hawick YM have a home tie against Caithness. Hawick Linden begin their National League 3 campaign away to Allan Glen's.

In East League 1 Hawick Harlequins will host newly-promoted Earlston, and Duns are away to North Berwick, while in EL2 Walkerburn face Meggetland at home, St Boswells travel to Moray House and Gala YM are away to Inverleith.

To download a PDF file with all club fixtures for the season click here.

July 2nd
The fixture list for 2009-2010's season will be announced tomorrow but we understand that the Cup Finals Day will again be played on a Sunday, a week after the Jedforest Sevens competition on 9th May. There was talk that the Cup, Shield, Plate and Bowl would end in April so that Borders teams would be able to concentrate on the Sevens circuit, after Melrose, Jed and Peebles were ruled out of any realistic chance of competing when they enjoyed good runs in the Cup and Shield competitions this season.

Sadly it appears this was "all talk" and at the SRU AGM clubs voted to embrace the status quo as far as dates are concerned for the competition and that means a good run in the Cup or Shield by a Border club will mean having to forfeit the Kings Of The Sevens title. This year the Cup will be contested by all 36 Premier teams, avoiding the mis-matches of the past, while the Shield will be exclusively for the 36 National League teams. The Bowl and Plate will be for the teams playing below NL status.

July 1st
It's certainly been an active couple of days in Borders Rugby. Grant Shiells and Mike Tait were heading for Melrose but they've both been swooped upon by Steve Bates, Coach of Newcastle Falcons, and will be playing in the Guinness Premiership next season on a full time two year contract. The ex Kelso players who have gained international caps at age group levels for Scotland are already training with their new team-mates. Mike's father of course is Alan Tait who is on the coaching staff at Newcastle. Bates said: "These are two of the best young players in Scotland so we are delighted they've come to Newcastle." It's believed that Tait will be plying his trade in the centre rather than on the wing where he scored nine tries for Kelso last season.

Kelso's Mike Tait (left) and Grant Shiells have switched from Melrose to Newcastle

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