Defending Kings of 7 champions Melrose win Peebles Sevens for third year on bounce

The Greenyards club beat Edinburgh’s Boroughmuir 33-19 in the weekend’s final to put themselves in pole position for at least the next eight months as they launched their bid for a 12th title.

Saturday’s first-round victory was their third on the trot at the Gytes tournament – and 16th all together – after beating Kelso 10-5 in 2025’s final and Jed-Forest 24-12 the year before.

To make it to the final, Melrose saw off Hawick by 28-5 in the last four and Selkirk by 12-10 and Peebles Blues by 36-0 in their pool, that group’s other result being a 17-5 win for the Souters against a second-string home side.

Their tries against Boroughmuir were touched down by player-of-the-tournament Doug Crawford and Henno Bowe at the double and Callum Anderson, with Crawford adding three conversions and Scott Clark another.

Jordan Edmunds, Hayden Leitch and Gavin Lockhart were Boroughmuir’s try-scorers, with Lockhart adding two conversions.

Making up the rest of Melrose’s Patrick Anderson-skippered squad were Jaxson Douglas, Elliot Ruthven, Ross McConnell, Connor Spence and one of two new recruits from Selkirk, Ben Pickles, the other being Callum Anderson, not to be confused with his new team’s interim head coach of the same name, stepping up from overseeing the Greenyards’ sevens squads following the departures of former XVs co-gaffers Scott Wight and Iain Chisholm this summer.

New boy Anderson junior, 24, was delighted to see his current club make a winning start to their latest title bid, telling StuMedia Sport: “It’s always a goal at this club to be pushing for the Kings of the 7s title, so we’ll just see where we are next spring.

“It’s obviously a good way to start the season and these boys are pretty used to that.

“I think that as the tournament went on, the team got better and hopefully that will just kick on again.

“Melrose is just a good fit for me – I enjoy the brand of rugby they play and how seriously they take their sevens.”

Their Edinburgh opponents made it to their first final at Peebles since a 27-0 thumping of Melrose back in 2006 via a 22-12 semi-final knockout of the hosts and pool wins by 34-7 versus Jed-Forest and 17-10 against Kelso, with Kelso winning their group’s other game 38-21 against Jed.

The Pees’ seniors – one of three teams fielded by the hosts to make up for late withdrawals by a Royal Scots Dragoon Guards squad and the capital’s Watsonians – got to the last four by beating Gala twice in their rejigged two-team pool, by 19-17 and 26-15.

Hawick made it there by edging out Edinburgh Academical 14-12 in their pool and getting the better of a president’s VII by 40-0, with that home side also losing out to Accies by 57-14.

Melrose’s tournament win earns them ten points, followed by Boroughmuir on seven and Hawick and Peebles joint-third on five. Selkirk, Accies, Kelso and Gala are joint-fifth on three.

Kicking off the Kings of the 7s’ 32nd season, Peebles’ latest tournament was the 11th of the calendar year and the first of ten making up the coming campaign, one down on last year due to Berwick’s April event no longer counting towards the 1994-founded contest’s standings.

Dates have yet to be set for the following nine rounds of this season’s competition, but if it follows the same sequence as last time round, Gala’s sevens look likely to be next up in April, with Accies hosting 2027’s finale next May.

Last year’s 11th title win for Melrose extended their lead at the head of the competition’s roll of honour to five, with Jed second on six and Gala, Kelso and Watsonians joint-third on four.