Four of six guest teams to contest 2025’s Melrose Sevens now confirmed

The first four guest teams given the thumbs-up to contest next year’s 1883 Centenary Cup at the Greenyards in Melrose on Saturday, May 24, include Shogun, back to defend the title they won for the first time this year with a 21-5 victory in April’s final against Melrose co-head coach Scott Wight’s South of Scotland Barbarians.

Shogun, coached that time round by Selkirk’s Fraser Harkness and Welshman Nick Wakley, will be joined by Australia’s Sydney Cavaliers, New Zealand club Te Awamutu and the Co-optimists.

Tournament manager Malcolm Changleng said: “We are incredibly excited to have these four fantastic teams confirmed for the 1883 Centenary Cup at next year’s Melrose Sevens.

“With the inclusion of international teams, including the Sydney Cavaliers from Australia, a blend of players from Manly and Randwick, and the Te Awamutu rugby club from Waikato in New Zealand, as well as our defending champions, Shogun, the tournament is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent years.”

Two more invitational outfits will be confirmed in the new year.

The announcement of two-thirds of the invitational teams competing follows that in November of the 18 Scottish teams they’ll be up against.

They include all seven Borders teams competing in the current Kings of the 7s competition – the Arnold Clark Premiership’s Melrose, Selkirk, Kelso and Hawick and the next division down’s Gala, Peebles and Jed-Forest – and they’re accompanied by the two capital sides on the contest’s leaderboard two rounds in, Edinburgh Academical and Watsonians, plus eight other Scotland-based clubs and expatriate outfit London Scottish, three-time winners of the tournament, most recently in 2019.

The other Scottish clubs signed up are the premiership’s Ayr, Heriot’s, Currie Chieftains and Arnold Clark National League Division 1’s Glasgow Hawks, Glasgow Academicals, Stirling County and Boroughmuir, along with National 2’s Stewart’s Melville.

Next year’s Greenyards sevens have been put back in the calendar from their traditional second-Saturday-in-April slot, the 12th next time round, by six weeks to avoid any potential fixture clashes if the current premiership seasons overruns its scheduled March finishing date.

Melrose’s sevens will be the last of the Kings of the 7’s ten rounds this season, rather than the third, as was the case previously.

The Greenyards club themselves are currently at the top of the leaderboard, on 13 points from two rounds, with Jed-Forest, Gala and Edinburgh Accies joint second on ten and Hawick, Peebles and Kelso joint fifth on eight.

Hawick Sevens on Saturday, April 19, will now be the competition’s first round of 2025 and third all told.

Watsonians were the last Scottish-based team to win Melrose’s sevens, back in 2018, and the hosts were the last Borderers to do so, seven years prior to that.

Tickets for 2025’s event cost from £37 for adults and £17 for children aged 11 to 17. For details, go to https://melrose7s.co.uk/tickets/