Hawick loss at Melrose puts them in Relegation Play-off – Wins for Jed, Kelso, Peebles & St Boswells



Hawick lost four players in the first half to injury as they went into the break 27-0 down at Melrose, who wrapped up their bonus points by half time. The second half saw two yellow cards dished out to the Greens’ Bruce McNeil and Rory Hutton, which put them down to 13 men at one point, and one to Callum Crookshanks for Melrose, but things were a lot tighter in the second period with both scoring a converted try apiece.  But the power of Melrose in the opening 40 minutes blew their Borders rivals away and Melrose now need just two points against Stirling County on March 11th to finish the season at the top spot in the BT Premiership table. Ruaridh Knott, Iain Moody, George Taylor, Fraser Thomson and Jason Baggott all touched down for the home side with Baggott converting three and kicking a penalty. Ali Weir got Hawick’s only points with a converted try.

Hawick are confirmed as finishing 9th in the table, which means they will be in the relegation play-off match in April against either Marr, Jedforest or more likely Edinburgh Accies. This is as a consequence of Gala losing 28-46 at home to Boroughmuir who are now safe from any relegation issues.

In National 1 Jedforest won a high-scoring game at home to Falkirk 42-29 but Selkirk were defeated in the capital by Stewart’s Melville 21-16.

Kelso and Peebles both won at home in National 2 as they aim for promotion with wins over West of Scotland (55-17) and Hillhead Jordanhill (41-17) respectively, while St Boswells stay top of Division 3 with a 38-0 victory at Livingston.

In the East Leagues there were local wins for Duns, Hawick Quins, Hawick Linden and Earlston.