Border Telegraph | Sport | Selkirk celebrate unique treble at annual dinner

Monday, 13th October, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 21st May, 2008 12:00

Selkirk celebrate unique treble at annual dinner

By Stuart Cameron

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It was a night of smiles and celebrations at Philiphaugh on Saturday night as Selkirk Rugby Club held their annual dinner.

Several trophies shared the top table with guests John Beattie, Alastair Moffat and Bill Rutherford who all gave excellent entertaining speeches.

It was a fitting end to one of the best seasons in the history of the club - a season in which they gained promotion to Premier 1, lifted the Border League title for the first time since the 1952-53 season, won the Kings Of The Sevens trophy for the second year in succession and collected the Kelso and Selkirk Sevens titles as well.

First team coach Rodney Pow, who has been forced to stand down due to work commitments next season, began proceedings with a speech which catalogued the months from the opening game way back in September last year when Biggar came to Philiphaugh and won, right through to their remarkable final two games at the end of March 2008 which saw them beat West Of Scotland at home and Biggar away to secure promotion back to the big time. He made a friendly dig at West coach Beattie about the fact that Selkirk actually won more games than West in the season, but when the former Scotland and Lions number 8 stood up to deliver his speech on "The Game of Rugby" he apologised to all in attendance for their superior points difference!

Pow attempted to analyse where it all went right following the initial Biggar defeat and came up with a list of contributing factors including the lack of serious injuries throughout the season, the superb kicking by David Cassidy, who broke the club record to top a wonderful season for him personally, the fitness of the players and the youth set-up which he said was "the envy of many other clubs in Scotland." Team spirit was another ingredient to Selkirk's success and what made him so proud was the way that all the season's achievements came from a team mostly from the town.

In deflecting the credit away from himself he said that "players make coaches and not the other way round" and he made a point of paying tribute to 23 year old Fraser Harkness (who the previous night had been voted Premier 2 player of the season at the SRU Awards at Murrayfield) for his help in many areas to him and fellow coach Kevin Barrie. Next season Michael Jaffrey will be on the coaching staff and in closing he said he was confident that if the players gave the same commitment next year they will consolidate their position in Premier 1.

President George Thomson paid high credit to the coaching staff and said that the final game in the mud at Biggar would live in his memory forever. He said he was confident that Selkirk would continue to punch above their weight in Premier 1 next season and described club captain Neil Darling as "an inspirational character" who had done so much to help the club achieve success this season.

Neil has been confirmed as skipper for next season too and is relishing the challenge. "I was the proudest man ever leading the team off the pitch after beating Biggar" he said with more than a hint of a tear in the eye at the end of the night. What became so clear during the entire evening was the special bond between all players and the coaching staff, and the pride in being part of something very special. There's a lot of hard work to be done in the close season, and even more work when the season comes round again, but if ever a team was "up for the challenge" it is Selkirk.

Graham Marshall of Selkirk Youth Club won an award at the SRU Dinner the previous evening for "Youth Coach Of The Season". Graham has been nurturing talent for 15 years in Selkirk. Fifteen of his proteges were involved in Selkirk's first team this season, a tremendous testament to his coaching abilities.

Among the other prize winners at the Selkirk dinner was the Player's Player of the Year award which went to Eddie Gauche, who also won the overall Player of the Year accolade. Fraser Harkness was Top Try Scorer, a special achievement award went to David Cassidy, Gavin Craig got the nod as "Best Tackler" and the man who impressed the most during training was Gordon Patterson who set a tremendous example to all.

You can re-live the Selkirk celebrations after winning the Border League title by watching a special video featuring interviews with Rodney Pow, Neil Darling, Fraser Harkness, Basher Inglis and Scott Hendrie as well as the three tries scored against Jed-Forest by logging on to www.ScottishRugbyRadio.com

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