First clean sweep of wins of season for Borderers in rugby’s Arnold Clark Premiership

Currie got the better of Edinburgh Academical by 31-12 at home and Melrose edged out another capital city outfit, Watsonians, by 53-51, also at home.

Currie take pole position by virtue of an on-field points difference 22 better than the Greenyards side, up one place from third.

Defending champions Ayr drop two places to take over the third-place spot vacated by Melrose, on 20 points from five games, after losing 31-14 away to the capital’s Heriot’s at the weekend, their first defeat since November 2024.

Melrose’s latest victory was accompanied by away wins for Kelso and Hawick, by 35-33 against Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians and 43-19 versus Glasgow Hawks respectively, that being the first time this season, five rounds in, that the region’s three representatives in club rugby’s top flight have pulled off a clean sweep and all ended up on the right sides of their results.

Kelso and Hawick’s second wins of the new term leave them as they were in the table, in seventh and eighth places respectively, now on 14 points and ten.

Melrose will be the premiership’s only Borderers on the road this coming Saturday, to Edinburgh to take on second-from-bottom Accies, with Kelso at home to basement side Hawks at Poynder Park, both 3pm kick-offs.

Hawick were due to host Currie at Mansfield Park but that match has been postponed to a date to be fixed as a mark of respect following the death at 60 of Ally Donaldson, a former fly-half for the visitors, Edinburgh and Scotland.

Melrose’s try-scorers as they fought back from falling 34-17 behind early in the second half were lock Jarrah Bell with a hat-trick, left-winger Donald Crawford at the double, captain and lock Angus Runciman, tighthead prop Zen Szwagrzak and replacement Ruairi Campbell, with fly-half Luke Townsend adding five conversions, including one right at the death to win the game, and a penalty, taking his tally of points kicked for the season so far up to the half-century mark.

Harry Clark and Bruce Weatherhead both touched down twice for their visitors and Max Garry, Stu Allison and Gus Godwin scored their other tries, with full-back Weatherhead adding five conversions and two penalties.

Home head coach Callum Anderson was disappointed to see his side let Watsonians lead from beginning to almost the final whistle but also heartened by the character they showed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as full-time neared, telling the Offside Line rugby news website: “We were frustrated when we let them into the game really easily, but the great thing is how we then came out with something really, really positive.

“Every time we got down in the bottom half of the pitch, we got something.

“They’re a great set of boys. They learned really quickly and showed a lot of bravery, so I’m really proud of that.”

No 8 and co-head coach Bruce McNeil registered a hat-trick of tries for Kelso – his fifth, sixth and seventh of the current campaign, taking him one clear as the premiership’s top trey-scorer to date – with blindside flanker Harry Borthwick and replacement Dwain Patterson touching down too and full-back Archie Barbour kicking three conversions and Patterson two.

Euan McKirdy claimed a hat-trick at the other end of the pitch, with further tries being supplied by Milan Marinkovic and Jonathon Davis and Ben MacDougall adding four conversions.

McNeil’s co-head coach Nikki Walker was happy with the way his side grew into the game after a slow start, saying: “We did well to get ourselves in front by half-time.

“We could have been a bit more clinical in the second half to get away, but we knew it was always going to be a really tough fight.

“GHA are a really good team, especially at home.”

Left-winger Ronan McKean at the double, lock Tom Huggan, tighthead prop Nicky Little, No 8 Jae Linton, loosehead prop Shawn Muir and inside-centre Andrew Mitchell scored tries for Hawick, four of them converted by full-back Harry Wear, as they bounced back from a 12-0 deficit.

Hawks’ tries, two of them converted by David McCartney, were touched down by Euan Muirhead, Craig Nolan and Kyle Shanahan.

Greens head coach Graham Hogg was also pleased with his team’s display, adding: “In patches, it was certainly what we were looking for.

“Performance-wise, especially in that the second half, we started to impose our game more on them and play the blueprint we are looking to play.

“There have been patches in every single game but we certainly saw more of them in that performance.

“Coming off the back of a really poor performance last week, it was all about getting a result, so I’m delighted to come away with five points in the manner that we did.”