Melrose’s bid for promotion to rugby’s Tennent’s Premiership hit by two-point deduction for breach of rules

The Greenyards side have lost their appeal against that sanction, imposed for not having enough front-row replacements during their 20-15 victory at Biggar in October.

Melrose remain third in the table following that penalty, on 48 points from 12 games, but they’re now five points adrift of table-toppers Kelso and second-placed Ayr, though they’ve got a game in hand on the latter.

Grigg has owned up to making a mistake by not having a replacement for Will Owen on his substitutes’ bench, leading to scrums going uncontested after he went off, but says it’s not one he’ll repeat and he’s hopeful that it won’t unduly hamper his side’s promotion challenge.

“We weren’t compliant with the laws and regulations of the competition requiring us to be able to replace a prop at the first time of asking,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we only had one tighthead in our squad that day and he was concussed just before half-time and we had to remove him from play.

“It was one of those things. I know what everybody will be thinking, that we were trying to pull a fly one or whatever else, but that wasn’t the case.

“It was a genuine mistake by myself in terms of my interpretation of the laws and we’ve faced the consequences for it, but it doesn’t really change anything. We’re still going to have to win all of our remaining games.

“We’re now five points behind Kelso instead of three but it really doesn’t change what we need to do.

“We’re still going to have to win all of our games, it’s as simple as that.

“It’s certainly not helpful but it doesn’t change anything. We still need to beat Kelso at Kelso, Ayr at home and Gala away. It’s just one of those things.”