Rugby sevens festival win for South of Scotland stars on other side of border

​Wearing the same red-and-white-hooped shirts as South of Scotland but billed as Borders Rugby TV All Stars, the region’s representatives beat Penrith’s Halbro 7s 41-10 in this year’s final to bring the Border City Sevens Trophy back north of Hadrian’s Wall again.

That’s the second time that piece of silverware has ended up here as the South won 2019’s inaugural festival, beating fellow Scottish invitational outfit the Power Bombs 26-19 in that final.

Kelso, this year’s Kings of the 7s winners, accounted for half of the BRTV All Stars squad – supplying Dwain Patterson, Archie Barbour, Bruce McNeil, William Tweedie, Cammy Thompson and Murray Woodcock – and they were accompanied by Jed-Forest’s Gregor Young; Melrose’s Harry Makowski and Hamish Weir; and Selkirk’s Callum Anderson, Ryan Cottrell and Lachlan Ferguson, with Selkirk’s Fraser Harkness as head coach and Kelso director of rugby Neil Hinnigan overseeing.

They started off with pool wins by 50-5 against their hosts, 50-7 against a Northumbria University side and 51-10 versus the city’s Austin Friars school, then followed that up with a 42-0 semi-final knockout of Novos.

Their tries in the final were scored by Cottrell at the double, Anderson, Barbour, Weir, Woodcock and Makowski.

Sonny Atkins and Isaac Murray touched down for their opponents.

Captain Young was delighted to see his raiding party emerge victorious in Cumbria, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “It’s refreshing just to have a bit of the pressure off after the Kings of the 7s.

“It’s a pressure-cooker when you’re there and you’re trying to win but now the pressure’s off and we’ve got some of the best guys from the Kings tournaments merging together and everyone getting on well, and winning here just shows you what we can do when we pull together.”

Explaining how the new side were put assembled, Borders Rugby TV founder Stuart Cameraon added: “This was a team put together by Neil Hinnigan at short notice, so though the quality was as good as an official South team fielded by the Border League, it was independent.

“It all came about when Neil posted a personal statement on Facebook in praise of what BRTV and Rugby Radio do to promote rugby in the Borders.

“Many players wanted to do something to show their appreciation also, so the idea came about from that. It was literally put together in ten days, and BE Uniforms sponsored and supplied the jerseys and Borders Mortgage Hub sponsored the team.”

It’s now less than two months until the Borders’ next Kings of the 7s campaign starts at Peebles on Saturday, August 5, followed by Gala’s round on Saturday, August 19.

It then takes a break until Melrose Sevens kick off 2025’s part of the season on Saturday, April 13, followed by three further rounds that same month, at Hawick, Berwick and Langholm, then four next May, at Kelso, Earlston, Selkirk and Jed-Forest.

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