RECENTLY deposed Super6 table-toppers Watsonians will travel to the Greenyards tonight to take on the league’s new leaders, Southern Knights, with plenty of frustration to work out of their system.
The Myreside outfit fell behind Knights in the table last weekend after surrendering a 17-3 half-time lead to succumb to a 20-21 loss at home to Heriot’s, and they have since been rocked by the double-blow of losing influential props Steven Longwell and Matias Sonzogni Argiro for the remainder of the campaign.
Longwell, a former Premiership winning prop with Ayr, has signed for English Championship side Jersey Reds. Argiro, who is initially from Argentina and spent two seasons with Currie Chieftains before signing for Watsonians at the start of this season, is off to play for Rugby Club du Bassin D’Arcachon in Federale One, which is the third tier of French rugby.
Having already lost captain and chief tactician Lee Millar to injury for the rest of the season, Watsonians have not had their struggles to seek in this campaign, as they battle to emulate their heroics in being the top-performing side in the inaugural Super6 season before it was cut-short by Covid. However, head coach Fergus Pringle is keeping level-headed.
“While Stevie will be a big loss for us for the rest of campaign, we felt it was the right thing to support this move to Jersey Reds for various reasons,” said Pringle. “Hopefully he goes and does really well down there and returns to Scotland an even better player in future.
"We wish Matias all the best with this opportunity of a full-time contract in France. He has worked hard and contributed really well to our campaign, and he goes with our best wishes to make a success of this new opportunity.”
“It’s always a tough challenge going down to the Greenyards and one we are excited about taking on this week,” he added, turning his attention to the task in hand. “Our focus is on putting in an accurate and composed 80 minute performance. We’ll need to do that to get the result against a quality Knights team.”
Opposite number Rob Chrystie said that his team are very aware that Watsonians’ recent travails are likely to make them a more dangerous proposition tonight.
“They will be looking to put right some wrongs from last weekend’s fixture but have shown over the Super6 competition that they are an extremely strong team who are hard to beat,” he said.
Stirling County host Boroughmuir Bears in a basement clash tomorrow afternoon, while Heriot’s face in-form Ayrshire Bulls at Goldenacre on Sunday.
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