Melrose and Gala appoint new head coaches ahead of next Tennent’s National League Division 1 rugby season

​Iain Chisholm, previously head coach at Tennent’s National League Division 2 side Peebles, switches clubs to take charge at Melrose and Gala fly-half Craig Dods steps up at Netherdale after helping out with coaching there – alongside Euan Dods and Stevie Scott, now at Fosroc Super6 side Watsonians – following the departure of previous gaffer Stuart Johnson in December.

Chisholm, also returning to work as head of youth rugby at Melrose after the best part of a year out due to childcare commitments, says he’s relishing stepping up a division as previous head coach Bert Grigg’s replacement and bidding to take the Greenyards side up a division further.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said the 33-year-old, formerly a player for the Greenyards side and also rugby development officer there.

“I feel really privileged to be given the opportunity to lead Melrose.

“Melrose are an ambitious club and they’re a club that I know. I know the majority of the senior players and all the coaches as well, so it’s going to be really easy to integrate back in. I’m just excited to get going.”

He’s not planning to tinker too much with what wasn’t far off a winning formula last time round, Melrose having finished third in the table on 86 points from 22 fixtures, ten shy of league leaders Kelso and two behind second-placed Ayr.

“I want us to have possession,” he said. “I believe that if you control the ball, you control the game. For me, this season is about developing our skill-sets and improving our decision-making and having a look at how we can create quicker ball. They’re all really simple things.

“We’re not going to change drastically because I believe Melrose are a good fit for me and how I see the game, and the skill-set of the boys suits how I want the game played.

“You can see by how successful the boys are at sevens and by a lot of the scores they’ve put on teams – in the 17 games they won last season, they got 17 try-bonus points – that there are a lot of positives, so I’m not going to come in and make wholesale changes.

“My job is about alignment – making sure that these guys buy into the way we’re trying to play. We want to play fast, we want to move the ball around, we want to use the ball to beat defences and, on the flip side of that, when we don’t have the ball, we want to put as much pressure as we can into getting the ball back to create counter-attack opportunities.”

Looking back over his year in charge at the Gytes, Chisholm said: “I needed to be taken seriously as a head coach and you’ve got to go where the opportunities are, and that was the reason for going.

“Had we had more of our our players there fit and a functioning lineout, it would have been a different story.

“When you approach something with real positivity and real optimism and a real love for the game, it’s infectious, and I’m glad that the Peebles boys caught that.”

Chisholm is also looking forward to spending less time commuting from home at Lilliesleaf, it being only eight miles from the Greenyards, saying: “It used to take 45 minutes to get to Peebles so Melrose is a lot handier, and my wife works there and my younger laddie’s now at nursery there, so it’s going to make life easier all round, I think.”

Gala finished fourth in the second tier last time round, with 72 points from 22 matches, and Dods will be hoping to improve on that next time round, having only missed out on promotion by a whisker the season before.

“I’m delighted to be taking on the head coaching role at Gala,” said the 30-year-old, a first-XV regular as well as being a specialist skills coach for kicking for Scottish Rugby.

“As my home-town club, I’m incredibly passionate about creating an enjoyable environment for players to be able to play to the best of their ability in.”

Peebles have also named a new head coach and, like Dods, he’s an internal appointment, former forwards coach Graeme Paterson having stepped up to take over from Chisholm.