Jed-Forest 22

Melrose 50

David Knox

at Riverside Park

MELROSE picked up their second piece of silverware on Friday evening - and that's before the season proper has even kicked off.

Following on from their success at Peebles Sevens earlier this month, Rob Chrystie's team lifted the Booker Border League trophy after a blistering opening half at Riverside Park.

Four first half tries gave the Rose a commanding 24-3 advantage over their hosts at the interval.

Despite a fightback midway through the second half, Jed couldn't get close enough to cause any jitters.

Gavin Wood, who scored two of Melrose's eight tries, said: "We have had a tough pre-season and it's paying off.

"We played well tonight and it was good to see the boys going over for the tries."

An early Gary Munro penalty gave Jed a brief lead.

But the power of the Melrose pack was evident during the opening exchanges and it wasn't long before Wood crashed over to score.

The impressive Craig Jackson slotted over the conversion.

Melrose stretched the advantage just a few minutes later with Wood this time finding a gap to dart through.

Approaching the half hour Ben McLean kept the scoreboard ticking over with another push over try.

Good awareness from Jackson led to try number four with the fly-half's cross field kick allowing the unmarked David Colvine to dive over in the corner.

Jackson added the extras from out wide to give Rose a healthy half-time advantage.

Quick hands allowed Iain Sim to pull the visitors further out in front after just a couple of minutes of the second half.

And Jackson's conversion more or less had the final won.

But Jed were far from giving up and they enjoyed a bright spell approaching the hour.

A Munro try and conversion was quickly followed by an excellent Lewis Young try in the far corner.

Munro's conversion brought the scoreline to 17-31.

Rose steadied the ship with some powerful drives to allow Richard Ferguson to crash over the line for the five points.

Jackson stretched the advantage to 17-38.

Young's angled run into the line allowed him to race through a gap and score his second.

And only a last gasp tackle prevented the full back completing his hat-trick.

But Melrose finished the stronger with Grant Shiels and Sim both going over in the closing stages to take the Greenyards club up to the half-century.

Christie's team will have the opportunity to make it three-out-of-three when they entertain Stirling County in the Charity Shield at the Greenyards.

Wood added: "It will be good to get back to the Greenyards - the pitch is looking great - and have a run out in front of our home crowd."