Happy New Year to you all. I trust you made good use of the break from work and rugby. We’ve plenty to do over the next month to see out the league season; 4 fixtures of which 3 are away. Maintaining our current position of 5th is priority and would be an ideal way to finish off the league. This won’t come without some hard work which many of you have been putting in since Saturday 4th, yet we still have many varying excuses for non-attendance at training. With just 9 of these sessions remaining there’s very limited opportunity to regain and maintain fitness levels required to achieve this 5th place goal.

So first up in 2014 is a trip to Berwick RFC for the 1st XV and Lismore for the 2nd XV. Enough has been said about the Berwick result earlier in the season (probably too much) but, without having seen the game, I’d imagine we could have written off at least half their total with a reduced injury list and players in correct positions. We have that this week so I expect us to raise our game and give Berwick only the respect they deserve, nothing more. Numbers are very tight for the 2nd XV but we’ve agreed with Lismore to get a game of rugby in whatever form. Thanks in advance for the efforts here and hopefully we can see improvements in numbers before the pool conclusion.

Hopefully you’ve all received an invite to the Burns Supper on 25th January. Please confirm ticket quantities with Cameron Ritchie and pass the £20 each cost to me a.s.a.p. As January can be a particularly long month financially, as usual we’re happy for anyone to defer payment until the following week.

With the 6 Nations being on the horizon, please note that the Bunker will be open for all Saturday fixtures. We’ve touring teams looking for games which Kevin Hourigan will confirm and get on the website soon, so plenty to get involved with. I’d encourage you all to make your way to The Antiquary for Sunday fixtures, including those Heineken Cup games over the next couple of weekends. There will always be a bunch of us there so keep an eye out for plans as they materialise on the Facebook group.

Wilson Craig has kindly booked flights for tour 2014 to Hamburg making use of a 20% discount offered earlier this week by EasyJet. This should help maintain his promise to reduce the cost of tour. We're still going for £300 and this can either be adjusted before final instalment in March or put towards a first night kitty. We're down to 14 tourists due to a few untimely withdrawals so please get in touch sooner rather than later should you wish to join us.

See you all soon,