Melrose kick off Kings of the 7s with a win



Peebles moved their Sevens tournament from a Sunday in April to a Saturday in August and you have to admire them for their brave move. It meant that theya re the only club from the 10 on the K7s circuit to have their event before the season starts, and we won’t see Round 2 until eight months time, which is all rather bizarre, although of course not long ago we had Kelso and Selkirk’s events pre-season. Selkirk took 83 years to win the Peebles trophy (the last time was in 1933) so it’s particularly unfortunate that they got to keep it for just over 3 months before handing it back. In the end they went out in Round 1 to Watsonians, and it was Watsonians who reached the final to take on Melrose, who disposed of Jedforest, Gala and Peebles on the way to the Final. There were many close ties but in the end a last minute try from Melrose gave them the title and 10 points as they won 22-17. They are now guaranteed to top the table for the next eight months while we wait for the second round in April at Gala. You can watch highlights of the final here and the ITV report here. There are two programmes featuring action from the tournament here and here.