Melrose 51

Boroughmuir 24

Atholl Innes at The Greenyards

MELROSE turned up the heat at The Greenyards on Saturday with a bonanza of eight tries in the sun to get their season off to a flying start.

The victory gave coach Robert Chrystie a winning start to his new career and laid the foundations which he hopes will be a successful season.

At the same time, he kept his feet on the ground.

“Our shape and basic skills were good and I am happy with the start. But we are only on week one of the league programme and we have to push on and get better,” he said.

“I am pleased with what we have achieved in a short space of time.”

Peter Wright, in his first season as coach at Boroughmuir after leaving Selkirk, praised his players for their fighting spirit, but admitted that Melrose played some excellent rugby.

“We failed to cope with the physicality of the game and Melrose played some good rugby and scored some fine tries,” he said.

“I was also disappointed in the ball that we turned over, but to score four tries and get a bonus point that we probably did not deserve was positive.

“It was a low starting point for us and we can only get better.”

George Taylor took over the kicking duties for Melrose.

“He has been working hard on it and to bring that bit of skill to his game and he will be a formidable player in the future,” Chrystie added.

Taylor converted three tries, Austin Lockington the other with a dropped kick, as Joe Helps was missing from the side.

Melrose led 22-7 at the break, and three tries in a five-minute spell before and after the interval, sustained their dominance.

Jason Baggot, Ross McCann and James Head scored in the first half to a touchdown by Thomas Gracie with Fraser Thomson in the sin-bin.

The home side then raced into a 34-7 lead ahead of the Boroughmuir fightback and McCann added the icing on the cake in the final seconds.

Bruce Colvine, Baggot, Murdo McAndrew and Ruaridh Knott scored for Melrose while Jordan Edmunds, Andy Rose and Craig Keddie replied for the visitors.

Chris Laidlaw converted two tries.

Melrose: F. Thomson; A. Lockington, G. Taylor, C. Jackson, R. McCann; J. Baggot, M. McAndrew; J. Bhatti, R. Anderson, N. Beavon, J. Head, L. Carmichael, N. Irvine-Hess, G. Runciman, I. Moody. Replacements: C. MacKay, D. Elkington, R. McLeod, B. Colvine, R. Knott.

Boroughmuir: D. Steele; J. Edmunds, A. Cox, M. Hare, R. Cairns; C. Laidlaw, S. Johnson; D. Robertson, T. King, T. Gracie, J. Ure, M, Tweddle, C. Keddie, A. Rose, A. Mncube. Replacements: J. Bett, D. Winning, J. Scott, G. McConnell. R. Bradford, C. McNeil.