Top of the table Watsonians are boosted by the availability of Matt Reid at full-back and Craig Davidson at loose-head prop for this evening’s Super Series Championship round three clash against Boroughmuir Bears at Myreside.
The pair missed the first two rounds of the campaign because they were at the’ Junior World Trophy in Kenya with Scotland Under-20s at the end of last month.
Tight-head prop Bobby Bratton has also been named in the starting line-up after completing his three-match suspension for a headbutt against Ayrshire Bulls in the penultimate round of the pre-summer Sprint series.
"Bobby has worked extremely hard over his extended preseason so he is more than ready to go," said head coach Nikki Walker. "The squad is now closer to its full complement, so training has been very good this week and we look forward to introducing more players to the 2023 Super Series Championship.
"Boroughmuir Bears put on a much-improved performance last week against the FOSROC Future XV so we are fully aware of the physical challenge that is coming our way," he added.
"We have been reasonably happy with our own performances during week one and two but fully understand we still have a very long way to go to reach our full potential. We have made some fix-ups this week in order to improve our performance level going into a fallow week."
Bears head coach Graham Shiel has gone for continuity after last week's win, with Ruairidh Swan swapping in at full-back for the benched Josh Beveridge the only change to his match-day 23.
"Although we are still some way off where we would like to be at this stage in the competition, it was pleasing to be able to make some steps in the right direction against the Future XV last week," said Shiel.
"We know, however, that we need to make further improvements to be more competitive and challenge for a top four spot.”
