South of Scotland have named a new captain for their forthcoming inter-district rugby championship campaign, beginning away to Edinburgh’s district team in Musselburgh this Friday, with Hawick hooker Fraser Renwick taking over from Melrose lock Angus Runciman.

The ex-Southern Knights pair both feature in head coach Scott Wight’s starting XV for that game at Stoneyhill, with kick-off at 7.30pm, Renwick at No 2 and Runciman at No 5.

The former is joined in the front row by another ex-South captain, his Mansfield Park teammate Shawn Muir, at loosehead prop and Kelso’s Dan Gamble at No 3.

Accompanying Runciman in the second row is Jack Fisher despite having moved from Selkirk to Currie Chieftains in the summer and the No 4 is joined by the Edinburgh outfit’s co-captain, Gregor Christie, at scrum-half, the No 9 having opted to represent the region he was born and brought up in rather than the one he currently calls home.

Liam Herdman has recovered from an injury sustained playing for Kelso on Saturday to start at fly-half, with Melrose’s Luke Townsend dropping out of the squad as part of a recovery management programme.

He and Gamble are among five starters supplied by their Poynder Park club, with Archie Barbour, Hamish Tweedie and Angus Utterson making up the back three, behind Melrose’s Ben Pickles and Hawick’s Andrew Mitchell in the centres.

That’s one more than Kelso’s Arnold Clark Premiership rivals Melrose and Hawick, both contributing four members of Friday’s starting XV.

The Greenyards club’s Runciman and Pickles are joined by the former’s fellow forwards Sam Derrick and Patrick Anderson and No 8 Connor Sutherland will line up alongside clubmates Mitchell, Muir and Renwick.

Making up this week’s replacements are Kelso’s Euan Knox, Grant Shiells and Gregor Law; Melrose’s Jack Dobie, Douglas Crawford and Struan Hutchison; and Hawick’s Calum Renwick and Jae Linton, with Gala’s Angus Dun and Melrose’s Donald Crawford as travelling reserves.

Christie, Utterson and Anderson will all be making their debuts in the regional representatives’ red and white hoops.

Former Melrose and Southern Knights co-head coach Wight, 41 this Thursday and back coaching the South for the second season running after being drafted in as a late replacement for Selkirk’s Alex Duncan last time round, said: “This is a very strong squad and the boys have come together really well this week.

“They are just buzzing to get out there in their South jerseys.

“It’s great to see local guys getting together and pooling all the strengths that Borders rugby has.

“It’s going to be tough because all the districts have selected very strong squads.

“There was real excitement in last season’s championship which carried on to the Scotland club international, and all the players from across the country now want to be part of the championship this season and put themselves in the frame for Scotland selection.

“The good thing this year is that we, as club international coaches, threw a hat on a peg and said that we’re only going to select people involved in the inter-district championship as that obviously caused a bit of an issue last year, that people had decided not to play.

“That is evident when you see the squads this year. This year, you are actually going to be getting the best players because, at the end of the day, everybody wants to play for their national team. I think this will be the first year that you could probably say that everybody’s as at full strength as possible.

“I think it’ll be a very close championship. I don’t think there’ll be a lot between the districts. I don’t think there’ll be a hell of a lot between the teams. You can see that in the leagues at the moment. Everybody’s been good this year and everybody’s there to be beat, so the reality is that it’ll come down to whoever can pull their squad together the quickest.

“That’s great to see and is just how we want it.

“It’s great for club rugby and I just hope we can get some South fans up in Musselburgh on Friday night to cheer the boys on and help us get a good start.”