Meanwhile, the South pack, led by skipper Angus Runciman, is unchanged from the eight which lined-up against Edinburgh in round one at the start of November.

There are a few new and familiar faces among the replacements in the shape of Melrose’s recent centurion Ben McLean, Hawick and former South skipper Shawn Muir, and Jed-Forest back-row Garry Young.

The Borderers won their opening match against Edinburgh 33-22 at Mansfield Park, while Glasgow & The West – who have yet to name their team for this one – were beaten 22-19 by Caledonia Reds at Bridgehaugh in their campaign opener.

Selkirk hooker Corey Tait was unavailable having taken up a contract offer with Doncaster Knights, but lock Gregor Law, who was an injury doubt, came through his return for Kelso at Melrose on Saturday with no ill-effects so retains his bench spot. Melrose scrum-half Doug Crawford and Kelso back-five forward Cammy Thompson are on stand-by.

“We knew we would have some injuries to deal with and that’s the nature of the game at representative level, but it presents great opportunities for more boys to step up,” said South head coach Gordon Henderson,

“We have a really good squad and they are desperate to pull on the South jerseys again or for the first time. I think 16 players made their South debut against Edinburgh and we will have some more this week, which is great.”

“In games like this it’s about trying to get the best out of players in a short space of time,” added Henderson, “but it helps when you have good players, as we do, because they take on information really quickly.

“We’ve worked on what we want in our defensive shapes and attack, and while this will be a different game to the one at Hawick, the whole squad – the bench made a big impact at Mansfield and we will need that again – took a lot of confidence from how we came back to beat Edinburgh and that experience of coming through tough moments will be invaluable.

“And, yes, that carrot now of a Scotland Club XV selection [to play against Ireland in February] will just add extra motivation, for both sides.”

 

South of Scotland XV (v Glasgow and the West at Braidholm, Glasgow on Friday @ 7pm): C Welsh (Hawick); A Barbour (Kelso), B Pickles, B Allan (both Selkirk), F Douglas (Melrose); D Patterson (Kelso), S Clark (Melrose); J Dobie (Melrose), F Renwick (Hawick), D Gamble (Kelso, A Runciman (Melrose) capt, J Fisher (Selkirk), S Derrick (Melrose), M Job (Selkirk), C Sutherland (Hawick). Subs: B McLean (Melrose), S Muir (Hawick), B Riddell (Selkirk), G Law (Kelso), T Wilson (Selkirk), G Young (Jed-Forest), H Alderson (Selkirk), M Wilson (Gala).