Feature: Club XV’s Connor keen to see team continue to improve

Connor Pearce is getting ready to head down south for his second year at Loughborough University on Sunday, but 24 hours earlier he hopes to help the WFC Club XV to record a positive result at Melrose.

The 20-year-old back-row played well as Bruce Ruthven’s men got their first Tennent’s National League Division One win of the season against Dundee HSFP last weekend at Myreside.

It leaves the side seventh in the table with six points and looking forward to the trip to take on Melrose at the Annay Road pitches this Saturday.

Originally from South Africa, Pearce is in his third season with Watsonians and he said:

“I love playing for the club. There are a lot of young guys around and we are all good mates who want to play for each other to get the desired result in every game we play."

“I first joined the club a couple of seasons ago [2017/18] when I was still at school at Merchiston Castle, but was too old to play for the school team.

“Ever since I arrived the players and others like Stan Buchan have made me feel so welcome and it was a great decision to join Watsonians.

“I played a lot for the second XV in that first season and then played a few games for that team last year before heading to Loughborough to study business management.”

Pearce was keen to kick on with his rugby when he got to Loughborough, but he broke his foot in his second match for the university side.

“That was really frustrating, but I worked hard on my rehab and it was great to get back to playing again with Watsonians when we went to Highland at the end of August,” he explained.

“We lost that game and then lost to Ayr in our first league match, but we upped the intensity in the second half against Dundee last time out and that helped us to pick up the bonus point win.

“It will be a tough game down at Melrose, but the team is starting to gel more now and I think that we can kick on from where we are.”

And given that he is from South Africa and has lived in Belgium and Scotland who will Pearce be cheering on at the World Cup?

“Probably South Africa, France and Scotland so there will be lots of games for me to watch,” he joked.

The Club XV’s second home match of 2019/20 is on September 28 at Myreside against Stirling County Wolves - get down and support the boys next weekend.