Nikki Walker to leave Hawick at end of season



Nikki Walker will be leaving his position as Hawick Head Coach at the end of the season after three years in charge of The Greens. It follows a disappointing season in which Hawick have ended up in 9th place of the 10 teams in the BT Premiership. Last week they beat Gala to avoid automatic relegation, but they couldn’t get anything out of their match on Saturday against Melrose, going down 34-7 and leaving The Greenyards with a high injury count of seven players, forcing them to finish the game with just 13 players on the pitch.  Already relegated Gala couldn’t beat Boroughmuir at Netherdale, giving the men from Meggetland safe passage to top flight club rugby next season.

Nikki will be in charge of the Greens in their vital relegation play-off against the team which finishes second in National 1. As it stands that is likely to be Edinburgh Accies, who are adrift of Marr, the club at the top of the table, although Jedforest could still have a say in proceedings if they win all of their remaining six games and other results go their way.  Because of the way the season is structured the play-off match could be as far away as eight weeks, in which time Hawick will only have one competitive match to play in the Booker Border League against Selkirk, while National 1 teams will be playing plenty of competitive matches in the coming weeks.  Jedforest will be playing re-arranged league games on three of the Kings of the 7s weekends, not an ideal situation for the K7s holders.

Hawick President John Thorburn said in an official club statement: “The clubs would like to thank Nikki for his contribution for the last three years. He has added a professionalism to the coaching role that will be beneficial to a new coach. Nikki’s efforts both as a player and coach have served the club well and we all wish him every success in whatever he decides to do in the future.”