After a few weeks of rest and recuperation Peter Murchie is excited for his Bulls to get back into the swing of things this Saturday against Watsonians Rugby. The Ayrshire Bulls head coach signed off 2019 with a victory over the same opposition and is expecting another close encounter when they butt heads this weekend at Myreside.

Pic: Peter Murchie addressing his men after their victory over Watsonians (George McMillan) In preparation, his men enjoyed a scrimmage with a Scotland U20s select at the weekend, which pitted Ollie Smith, Rory Jackson and Gavin Wilson against their teammates. Peter insists it was a much need exercise despite playing out to a 14-all draw: “It was important to get the hit-out. You don’t want to go into a league game off the back of a break. It was good to get into that game mentality ahead of Saturday”. It was a 19-13 Bulls win in the two sides previous encounter, and Peter knows how hard a challenge it’ll be to get a double over the current FOSROC Super6 pacesetters: “It was a very tough game at Millbrae and we will be expecting much of the same on their home turf. They have a great defence and are hard to break down.  “They have got quality throughout their side and work very hard for each other. We will need to be better than we were at Millbrae even though we got the result”.  There were certainly positives to take from the Bulls victory in December, and Peter has confidence his men can take those into the fixture whilst improving on other areas of the game: “We won the game without necessarily playing to our full potential. We probably won a little bit ugly but managed to show a lot of character in clawing it back. “We can definitely play a lot better- and we will need to on Saturday”. With only four games to go in the regular season Peter Murchie insists his men aren’t yet focusing on the prospect of home advantage come the play-offs: “History will show it (a home semi) will give you an advantage, obviously we would like to be at home as would every team. It would be a big boost being in front of our crowd but we have to have a game-by-game mentality. “This league has shown if you get too far ahead of yourself and think you’ve cracked it then you’ll come unstuck. We need to just keep focusing on what we are doing, there is nothing better than playing Watsonians on Saturday to focus the minds”. Saturday’s encounter kicks-off at 15.00 and you can follow the action every step of the way on Twitter @AyrshireBulls. The Bulls next home fixture is on Saturday 26th of January, when they welcome Southern Knights to Millbrae. You can purchase your tickets below.