A very familiar look to
The more things change, the more they stay the same, writes
STUART BATHGATE.
The Super6 competition may have shaken up club rugby in Scotland, but it will be two very familiar old foes, the Ayrshire Bulls and Southern Knights, who meet in its first-ever final today at Edinburgh’s DAM Health Stadium.
Ayr and Melrose, the Bulls’ and Knights’ respective parent clubs, won eight of the last 11 club championships between them before Super6 got under way.
They have won six of the last 11 Scottish Cups too, and have met four times in the final, with Ayr winning three of them.
The personnel has changed over the years, of course, and the teams have new names, but both sides are built on a tried and trusted formula that has brought consistent success.
“I have been involved with Ayr all my life, and as a coach for the last five years, and we are the team we always have been,” said Bulls head coach Pat Macarthur, the former Glasgow Warriors and Scotland hooker.
“I was there the first time we won the league 11 years ago, so I understood the pressure I was taking on and was happy to deal with that.”
The first final of the new tournament was originally meant to be in the spring of 2020, but just as Super6 had got to the end of the regular season, the pandemic struck and the play-offs could not go ahead.
Even before the whole thing kicked off, Knights coach Rob Chrystie insisted he had a twoseason plan to get the best out of his squad and, after a slow start, his plan seems to be working well.
“We were sitting rock bottom after five games, so I suppose that shows how far we’ve come,” Chrystie said, looking back on the 2019-20 campaign.
“On the field, I think we’re a tighter group now. I think we’ve got a really good balanced squad. I think we’re growing a nice group of coaches as well as a good, strong squad of players.”
When it comes to today’s match, Chrystie reckons it will be all about who handles the pressure best.
“Both teams have got some really strong, dynamic players,” he added.
“There will be pressure on people – some more than others – and to a certain degree it will be who flinches first.”
Meanwhile, Boroughmuir Bears won yesterday’s fifth-place play-off, upsetting Heriot’s 21-15 at Goldenacre.
Watsonians won the thirdplace play-off 21-19 on Friday night at Myreside, just holding off a second-half fightback by Stirling County after leaving 21-7 at the break.
In the Premiership yesterday, leaders Marr had a comfortable 35-7 win at home to Musselburgh, but Currie Chieftains kept up the chase with an equally emphatic 38-14 victory against bottom club Aberdeen Grammar.
Glasgow Hawks won the city derby, beating GHA 36-19, Hawick defeated Jed-forest 24-7, and Edinburgh Accies won 27-24 at Selkirk.