Kelso and Melrose get new rugby season off to winning start

Kelso were the only one of the Borders’ three remaining top-flight teams at home and they saw off Edinburgh Academical 38-21 at the same time as Melrose edged out Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians 34-31 on the road.

Those results leave Kelso and Melrose among five teams to take a handful of points from the opening round of the new campaign and the Greens as one of four with none.

Co-head coach and No 8 Bruce McNeil got a hat-trick for Kelso at their Poynder Park home ground, with full-back Liam Herdman, hooker Euan Knox and blindside flanker Harry Borthwick also touching down and fly-half Dwain Patterson adding four conversions.

Accies’ tries were scored by Max Erasmus, former Melrose tighthead prop Calum Crookshanks and Cameron Macdonald, with Finlay Anderson kicking three conversions.

Melrose’s try-scorers were hooker Logan Kirk, blindside flanker Craig Fairbairn, replacement Jaxson Douglas, inside-centre Gavin Wood and No 8 Ruairi Campbell, with fly-half Luke Townsend kicking three conversions and a penalty.

Touching down tries for GHA, three of them converted by Ben MacDougall, were Oli Nash at the double, Euan McKirdy, Charlie Lonergan and Jonathan Davis.

Captain and hooker Fraser Renwick supplied Hawick’s only try at the capital’s Goldenacre playing fields and inside-centre Bailey Donaldson added a conversion and two penalties as they were hit by their biggest defeat since a 93-0 hiding at home to Ayr in March last year.

Heriot’s tries, ten of them converted by Calum Jessop, were touched down by Thomas Glendinning and Ross McKnight at the double, Euan McLaren, Mykel Sleemen, Ross Brown, fly-half Jessop, Aidan Boyle, Thomas Dunn, Ned Hufton and Angus Hunter.

Hawick host the first derby of the new premiership season versus Kelso this coming Saturday and Melrose are at home to Glasgow Hawks, both 3pm kick-offs.

Last season’s corresponding match-ups yielded wins by 27-8 for the Greens at Mansfield Park in November and 13-5 for Melrose at the Greenyards the month before.

Kelso co-head coach Nikki Walker was chuffed to bits to start the new term with a victory, telling the Offside Line rugby news website: “We actually played really good expansive rugby, moving the point of attack and dominating the gain-line, which put them under pressure to give away penalties, and we executed our driving maul really, really well.

“Overall, I thought there was some really good stuff out there. A lot of stuff they’ve actually been working on over pre-season came off.”

Callum Anderson, now confirmed as Melrose’s new head coach after initially being appointed on an interim basis, was equally pleased, saying: “Our conversion rate was really high in the first part of the game but nobody really wrestled momentum through long phases of play.

“It’s just a relief to get off to a good start.”

Graham Hogg, his opposite number at Hawick, had fewer reasons to be cheerful, understandably enough, adding: “It goes without saying that that is a massive reality check for a lot of our young boys.

“I thought we stuck in the fight relatively well in the first half, but in the second half we just capitulated.

“That is what it is going to take to play at the top end of the premiership.

“Heriot’s are a quality side and they took their chances really well, but individually and collectively we need to be a lot better than we were in that second half.”