Melrose 50

Kelso 5

Atholl Innes at The Greenyards

THE final scoreline on Saturday at The Greenyards showed that Melrose has strength in reserve to clinch the league title and that the Premiership and National League 2 teams are miles apart in competing with each other.

Melrose, a mixture of experience and novices to the top XV, simply cruised past a Kelso side which, despite the inclusion of Andrew Skeen and Dom Buckley, were given a tough baptism to the Booker Border League.

Arguably, the oldest rugby union league in the world, is battling for survival, and is simply the opportunity for clubs to flex their muscles with an array of young and inexperienced players knocking at the door of top league rugby.

Four tries in the final seven minutes strengthened the argument on whether such contests are actually beneficial to the players, and this after Melrose led only 19-5 at half-time. But even then, it was evident that the Kelso barriers would submerge under the opposition’s acknowledged superiority.

Fitting tributes with a minute’s silence following the deaths of former presidents, John Reed (Melrose) and Stewart Wallace (Kelso) put a damper on the opening game of the League’s Pool B until both sets of players paid their own tribute on the field with no fewer than nine tries, eight of them to Melrose.

It was all-square after 14 minutes, Patrick Anderson and D Buckley sharing tries.

From then on, it was mainly one-way traffic as Cameron Mackay with the first of a double and a score from Grant Runciman plus two Craig Jackson conversions gave Melrose a 19-5 interval lead.

The second half, particularly the latter stages, saw Melrose in command with tries from Mackay, Sam Pecquer, Callum Wilde, Richard Mill and Ally Grieve. Mill kicked three conversions.

For those interested, referee Robert Paloni, who hails from New Zealand and now resides in Edinburgh, was making his debut.

But Melrose will now be targeting a win over Jed-Forest, who also have yet to play Kelso to complete Pool B.

Melrose: D. Colvine; P. Anderson, N. Godsmark, G. Wood, S. Pecquer; C. Jackson, S. Hutchison; D. Elkington, C. Mackay, R. McLeod, I. Moody, C. Wilde, A. Grieve, R. Campbell, G. Runciman. Replacements: R. Anderson, B. McLean, J. Head, R. Knott, R. Mill, T. Klein, L. Mallin.