SELKIRK hearts were pulsing palpably late on Sunday afternoon as the current heroes strained to overcome Newcastle's young bucks and secure their own sevens title.
The cheers that met every try, never mind their ultimate victory in the final, rang out across the Borders and the sense of family spirit could not be mistaken. The club has worked its way up from Division Three to One in the past decade with a stron
g emphasis on local talent with the odd southern hemisphere import.
Graham Marshall, local PE teacher and former Selkirk and Scotland flanker, is the quiet man behind the development structure that has created almost a conveyor belt of talent from the high school to the youth club and to Selkirk's first XV.
Kevin Barrie was the man brought in successfully last season to guide them to the top and the former Jed-Forest, Currie and Hawick coach now faces the challenge of keeping them there.
He admitted: "We know the reality and I have plenty of experience of playing and coaching in Division One to know the difference in quality we will come up against, but you can't under-estimate how far the spirit this club has can take you.
"It will be important for us not to just try and pick our games but try and shock the best teams, to stay up in this league. The first test is Currie at home, and if we get a good start then teams start to pay attention to you.
"The team is local, but that is Selkirk's strength. We have just one foreigner, Eddie Gauche, who is South African and had offers to play elsewhere, but he works at Borders firm Mainetti and lives in Selkirk and feels a big part of this club. Some will say you can't compete at the top now with just local boys, but what we also have is real, old-fashioned spirit – boys who are mates, who know each other inside out and will put their bodies on the line for this club.
"Do we have the quality to compete with the best, to go to places like Ayr, Currie and Boroughmuir and win? I don't know yet. But we're up for it and as long as we come back in the bus with the same spirit we go with, we'll live to fight another week."
Selkirk is one of those clubs in Scotland that possesses a virulent sense of community. Scotsman columnist Allan Massie wrote the club's centenary book, published last year, and almost every chapter oozes with the warm camaraderie that underpins the club from the first XV to the youth 'Rhinos', the popular 'Lady Supporters Lunches' to the Selkirk Rugby Veterans, who play monthly and tour all over the world.
That has shone brightly in the response to floods that hit the club in 2003, 2004 and this summer.
There was less destruction this year, but the fact few at Sunday's sevens tournament noticed the damage that did result three weeks ago was testament to the restorative skills of club members and local supporters.
John Rutherford remains Selkirk's most-capped and most well-known player. He knows the ups and downs of life at Philiphaugh having captained the team when it won promotion to Division One in 1980-81, and been coach when they last dropped out of Division One in 1994-95.
They missed out on an instant return under Rutherford on points difference, then fell into Division Three while he was moving on to coach the Scotland U21s and then Scotland backs en route to the 1999 Five Nations Championship.
He is, therefore, especially proud to see his beloved Selkirk back among the elite. "To be fair, Selkirk have always been a Division Two team who sometimes were good enough to make Division One, and that's all you could expect from a town of our size and resources," he said
"We've been very lucky to have Graham Marshall and the young talent he has developed, and we have excellent coaches; Kevin Barrie, Rodney Pow and Michael Jaffray, and the secret now is to hold on to our players. Many leave the Borders when they leave school, but if we can help those that go to university with expenses or a sponsored car, then, hopefully, we can build something. I'm delighted for young guys like Fraser Harkness, Lee Jones and others who could have left us and gone to bigger clubs. This is their reward.
"Our ambition is to stay up; we're not good enough to do anymore and we're realistic about that, but if teams come down to Philiphaugh and underestimate these lads they'll get a fright."
The full article contains 790 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
