Stewartry RFC win promotion to National Leagues after beating Ellon

Stewartry RFC’s promotion looks set to “change the whole future of the club”.

The Blacks defeated Aberdeenshire side Ellon in a play-off on Saturday to secure their place in the new Tennent’s National League Four.

Head coach, Sandy Currie, said: “I don’t know the last time we played in the National League, it’ll be the first time for the last 20 or 25 years.

“We’ve finished third, second, second, first in the covid season and second again. It’s very difficult to get out of the regional leagues but once we’re out it should be much more comfortable – it changes the whole future of the club.

“We’ll be playing a higher quality of rugby so it’ll just push us on. In terms of the West district, we were competing at the top but only have two or three competitive games a year in that league due to the gap, whereas playing national rugby we will be playing much more competitive games every week so it’ll make us a better team.

“It then means any of the youth players coming into the senior team are playing higher level rugby so it’ll develop them as better players all round.

“It should improve the overall performance and allow us to compete at that higher level and we’ll be travelling to bigger clubs with better facilities.

“We’ve boys in that team who have played regional rugby their whole career so it’ll be really good travelling across the rest of the country.

“We’ve got Strathmore, who are from north of Dundee, we have Perthshire, two teams in East Lothian, a team in Edinburgh and some in Glasgow plus ourselves.”

Stewartry’s promotion success came just seven days after their National Shield triumph over East Kilbride at BT Murrayfield.

And they needed late drama to do so at West of Scotland’s home at