Melrose extend lead in race for rugby’s Kings of the 7s title after win at Kelso’s sevens and semi-final placing at Earlston’s

The 15 points the Greenyards side earned by winning Kelso’s sevens on Saturday and making it to the last four at Earlston the day after puts them eight points clear of Gala at the top of the competition’s leaderboard after eight rounds.

Melrose, the most successful club in the 29-year history of the competition, are now on 45 points, with four-times winners Gala on 37.

With two rounds left to go and 20 points to play for, their Galashiels rivals are the only other Borders team capable of catching up with them, though Edinburgh Academical and Watsonians, tying for third place with 29 points apiece, remain in contention mathematically.

Gala have kept their title challenge alive by making it to both finals at the weekend, picking up 14 points for losing 38-12 to Melrose on Saturday and 41-19 to a Durham University side on Sunday.

The English students’ victory at Earlston and Melrose’s at Kelso mean eight different teams have won the eight rounds of the contest staged so far – Watsonians having come up trumps at Peebles in August last year, followed by Hawick at their own event later that same month, Gala at theirs the week after, invitational outfit Monaco Impis at Melrose last month and Accies at Berwick the weekend after that.

Welcoming his side’s first Kelso Sevens final victory for five years, Melrose try-scorer Bruce Colvine told Borders Rugby TV: “We’ve been in two previous finals this time round and not come out winners, so to finally get that monkey off our backs is really good.

“It’s great for some of the young guys that have just stepped up as they’ve not got to experience winning before and have had that disappointment at coming second time after time, so for them to finally win something is really, really good.

“We got better as the day went on. We probably peaked at the right time.

“We spoke about getting better and better tie by tie and we managed to do that.”

Melrose’s route to the final at Kelso consisted of wins by 24-10 against Northumbria University and 43-7 versus Selkirk in their pool and by 14-5 against their hosts in the semis.

Gala got there by beating Peebles in their pool by 40-19, though they lost 21-19 to Accies at that stage too, then seeing off Jed-Forest by 24-19 in the semis.

Kelso made it into the last four by beating Hawick and Stirling County in their pool by 29-0 and 33-12 respectively, with Stirling also losing to Hawick, by 29-14.

Jed’s route to the semis comprised pool wins against Watsonians and Currie Chieftains by 29-7 and 33-14 respectively.

Saturday’s pool matches saw two other wins for Borders sides – by 14-12 for Selkirk against the Newcastle students and 21-19 for Peebles versus Accies.

Melrose’s 24-21 last-four loss to Gala at Earlston was preceded by a 26-17 first-round win against Accies and 38-0 quarter-final defeat of Kelso.

Gala beat Peebles by 38-14 in round one and Selkirk by 19-17 in the last eight.

Jed went out at the quarter-final stage after being beaten 34-5 by Durham Uni, having got the better of Edinburgh Uni by 31-24 prior to that in round one.

Sunday’s first round also included a 50-7 victory for Kelso over Hawick, 40-7 win for Selkirk against their hosts, 50-0 loss for Berwick to Durham Uni and 17-7 defeat for Gala YM up against GAC 7s.

Round nine of the current Kings of the 7s campaign takes place at Jedburgh’s Riverside Park on Saturday, May 13, and Selkirk’s sevens conclude proceedings on Saturday, May 20.

The competition leaderboard ahead of those final two rounds sees Kelso fifth on 24 points, Selkirk sixth on 21, Jed seventh on 20, Hawick eighth on 19, Peebles ninth on 19 too and Berwick tenth and bottom with six.