57-20 cup knockout at Currie not as one-sided as it looks, cllaims Melrose head coach Bert Grigg

Melrose on the defensive against Currie Chieftains on Saturday (Pic: Ian Gidney)

Melrose’s 57-20 defeat away to Edinburgh’s Currie Chieftains in rugby’s Scottish cup on Saturday wasn’t anything like as one-sided as its scoreline might suggest, according to the Borderers’ head coach, Bert Grigg.

Grigg’s team were 17-14 up against the Tennent’s Premiership runners-up at half-time at Balerno’s Malleny Park and continued to hold their own into the second half but let the game get away from them later on, especially after being reduced to 13 men by yellow cards for Connor Spence and Logan Kirk in the last five minutes.

Greg Cannie scored a hat-trick of tries for Currie, with ex-Melrose winger Iain Sim, James Donoghue, Paddy Boyer, James McCaig, Graeme Carson and Cairn Ramsay also touching down and Jamie Forbes adding two conversions and Sam Leto four.

Donald Crawford and Roly Brett scored a try each for the visitors, with David Colvine converting both and also kicking two penalties.

Next up for Melrose after that second-round cup knockout, denying them a chance to add to their four wins between 1997 and 2018, making them the joint most successful side in the 28-year history of the competition, is a return to the capital on Tennent’s National League Division 1 duty to take on basement side Stewart’s Melville this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.

The Greenyards side go into that game sitting third in the table on 76 points from 20 fixtures, nine places and 54 points better off than their hosts at Inverleith Sports Ground.

Looking back over Saturday’s cup exit, Grigg told Borders Rugby TV: “Going by the scoreline, it doesn’t look like a great day at the office for Melrose, but actually for 60-odd minutes of that game, we were probably the better side at times.

“We went in at half-time 17-14 up, which was probably deserved in terms of the way the boys played,

“Unfortunately, a combination of a five-day turnaround from Monday’s Border League final and availability of players in some positions meant the last 20 minutes got away from us.

“Credit to Currie, they really did step it up in the last 20 minutes, but I was pleased with our squad as a whole showing some real ticker through the entire game to compete with a side in the premiership.”