Edinburgh and Boroughmuir lock Fergus Pringle admits he is excited at the prospect of facing Melrose in the sixth round of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup after the recently crowned league champions were drawn to face Calum MacRae’s club.

The South Africa-born forward played a pivotal role in the Meggetland-based club clinching the title and revealed Boroughmuir are hungrier than ever for more silverware before the end of the season.

Pringle said: “I was excited with the draw because facing Melrose was the toughest challenge we could have got. It will be a good test for us and should prove to be an exciting match.

“Our coach is very good like that and we have been focusing on our performance rather than the result and the score-line.

“Even after we won the title all the guys have been focusing on improving the team’s performance. We want to perform well all the time, be consistent and set standards.

“It is not a case of relaxing after winning the trophy; we now want to do even better.

“The Cup is really important to everyone. Melrose will see this is as a one-off chance to beat us and get some silverware, so we need to be at the top of our game.”

Pringle’s showings in navy blue and emerald green earned the experienced second rower a first team outing for Edinburgh; coming off the bench during the recent Magners League home match against Munster.

But he says it was difficult for him to savour his first professional start of the season because the hectic pace of the match made it difficult for him to make an impact.

He said: “I was on for the last 10 or 15 minutes and there weren’t that many set pieces. The guys were really going for it and chucking the ball around.

“When you come on as a replacement at that stage, you find it difficult to make an impact. You feel as if you are running around as fast as you can, but you are not really getting involved.”

Pringle is expected to be involved in Edinburgh’s back-up squad for Monday’s back-up game against Glasgow Warriors at Whitecraigs, kick off 2pm and says he just wants to play as much rugby as possible.

He said: “Between now and the end of the season, I just want to play as much rugby as I can and the longer we stay in the Cup the better.

“I am hoping to play in the back-up game on Monday and that will be another opportunity to get some game-time under my belt.”

Edinburgh Rugby Club actively supports and promotes all of the rugby clubs in Edinburgh. So when the men from The Castle are not in action why not get your fix of live rugby action by watching your local club? For more information and a list of our affiliate clubs got to the CLUBS section here on www.edinburghrugby.org.