Watsonians Super6 Head Coach Fergus Pringle believes the news that a number of Super6 matches are to be shown live will create a “buzz”.
The new top tier of the domestic game in Scotland begins in November and will have its opening season broadcast live simultaneously on both the BBC Sport Scotland website and Scottish Rugby TV.
Super6 will have one televised live game from each round of fixtures broadcast by Scottish Rugby TV and available live on the BBC Sport Scotland website, with the feature live matches played at 2pm on the Sunday of each round weekend.
Every Super6 team will have at least three live broadcast matches with highlights from all the other fixtures of each tournament round available online at scottishrugby.org
Watsonians will first appear on a live game when they take on old rivals Heriot’s away on November 17.
Seven days later the club’s first home game will be live when they play Stirling County at 2pm.
Pringle said:“I think having the games shown live will help to create a bit of a buzz around Super6 and generate profile for the competition. There is already a lot of interest out there in Super6 so it gives people the opportunity to see what it's about and it gives all the teams involved more exposure through the televised games.
“The start of Super6 still feels some way off but we know it will come around pretty quickly. There’s lots to look forward to, but our main focus now is getting prepared and using the time wisely in the build up to the competition phase.
“Our focus will be on the first game. We’ll play Melrose [now the Southern Knights] down at the Greenyards on their new pitch on November 9 at 3pm, so I’m sure it will be an exciting occasion for both clubs to be involved in. It’s a tough game first up, but one both sets of players will be right up for.”
Scottish Rugby Chief Executive Mark Dodson said:“Super6 is a bold new competition that is designed to bridge the gap between the domestic and the professional game in Scotland.
“It will feature the best semi-professional players and so I’m delighted our long-term partners BBC Sport have agreed to provide live coverage of Super6 throughout its opening season.
“This, coupled with the Scottish Rugby TV coverage, will showcase the high quality matches we are anticipating and enable clubs to really leverage their commercial and sponsorship opportunities knowing the games will be available to a local and international audience.”
Grigor Stirling, Commissioning Executive, Sport, BBC Scotland, said: “It’s great news for our audiences that we’ll be bringing regular live coverage of Super6 during its inaugural season. It’s an exciting addition to the game in this country and we’re delighted we’ll be showing matches on the BBC Scotland sport site, with the added bonus of broadcasting the final live on the BBC Scotland channel.”
The opening Super6 season will run from November 2019 to March 2020, with the final league rounds all being played on Sunday, March 1 to confirm the play-off matches scheduled for March 20-22.
The final of Super6 will be televised live on BBC Scotland over the weekend of March 27-29 2020.
Provision for weather affected matches has also been built into the calendar with two standby weekends available either side of the New Year and games will not be played over the Christmas and Six Nation periods.
Super6 teams will contest a cross-border competition with respective teams from the Indigo Group Premiership in Wales following the Scottish competition’s conclusion.
Teams will play home and away fixtures against their Welsh opponents starting in mid-April 2020 and it promises to throw up lots of exciting games.
Watsonians Super6 fixtures 2019/20
Saturday, November 9 2019: Southern Knights v Watsonians, The Greenyards, 3pm
Sunday, November 17 2019: Heriot’s v Watsonians, Goldenacre, 2pm LIVE
Sunday, November 24 2019: Watsonians v Stirling County, Myreside, 2pm LIVE
Saturday, November 30 2019: Ayrshire Bulls v Watsonians, Millbrae, 3pm
Sunday, December 8 2019: Watsonians v Boroughmuir Bears, Myreside, 2pm
Sunday, December 15 2019: Boroughmuir Bears v Watsonians, Meggetland, 2pm LIVE
Sunday, January 19 2020: Watsonians v Ayrshire Bulls, Myreside, 2pm
Saturday, January 25 2020: Stirling County v Watsonians, Bridgehaugh, 3pm
Friday, February 14 2020: Watsonians v Heriot’s, Myreside, 7pm
Sunday, March 1 2020: Watsonians v Southern Knights, Myreside, 2pm
March 20-22: Play-offs
March 27-29: Finals
Article by: Gary Heatly (GH Media)
