The home side bounced back from their Cup exit at the hands of Glasgow Hawks, with two tries from captain Fraser Thomson - one of which is in the running for try of the season - to add to scores from Nick Beavon and Callum Anderson at the Greenyards on Saturday, with Richard Mill kicking the extras.

With Neil Renwick kicking a penalty to add to Rory Hutton’s try, the scores remained finely balanced at 13-8 early in the second half.

However, with the visitors losing two players (Renwick and Mathew Landles) to the sin bin early in the first half, Melrose made their numerical advantage count.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph after the match, Melrose Head Coach John Dalziel said: “I thought we started really, really well, and could have added to it (scoreline).

“When Hawick went down to 13 men I thought we could have kicked on. But they are a good side and they came back into it in that middle 20 minutes and it took a wee while for us to get our composure.” But he added: “We got there in the end and all four of our tries were straight off the training field.” Injuries to Joe Helps and Peter Eccles meant Melrose had to make a few enforced changes to their starting line-up, which included New Zealand Under 20 cap Hugh Blake, who is currently with Edinburgh.

And while he set Thomson on the way for the second of his two tries, it was the first of those which proved the turning point in the match.

Mill’s cross field kick from the half way line, found Damien Hoyland loitering deep in the Hawick half, and he in turn fed the on-rushing captain who went on to score.

Anderson ensured the bonus point with the final try of the day. He returned to the Melrose line-up after five games helping out his hometown club Peebles, alongside his brother Donald, in BT National League Division One.

Callum, who is dual registered with the Gytes outfit, explained: “I was supposed to play for Melrose last week but then the game (against Currie) got called off and I got the call from Peebles asking if I wanted to play.

“It’s just nice to play, they’ve only had two games in a month here (Melrose) and that’s my fifth in a month almost so it’s good just to get some rugby. I feel sharper for it.” And he added: “It’s quite nice playing with my brother.” Melrose now face a tough fixture away to league leaders Heriot’s this weekend.

Dalziel said: “It’s a huge game. Heriot’s are almost certainly going to finish in the top four, I think we need another couple of points to be sure. We want to try to win every single game from now on and today showed the determination from the players is there after going out the Cup to Hawks.

“We just need to try to keep that momentum going - we have good experience of finishing the season well. Hopefully that is the start of things to come.

“With Ayr’s defeat last week and our game in hand, if we win all our games we’ll finish second and that then gives us a home semi-final (in the play-offs) which is a huge enticement for the boys. We just need to win every one.” Melrose: Fraser Thomson; Damien Hoyland, Tito Mua, Blair Hutchison, Callum Anderson; Richard Mill, Bruce Colvine; Nick Beavon, Richard Ferguson, Nicky Little, James Head, Lewis Carmichael, Peter Eccles, Hugh Blake and Graham Dodds. Replacements: Cameron Mackay, Ewan McQuillin, Andrew Nagle, Murdo McAndrew and Tom Galbraith.

Hawick: Lee Armstrong; Nikki Walker, John Coutts, Scott McLeod, Neil Renwick; Rory Hutton, Greg Cottrell; Shawn Muir, Ross Graham, Matt Landles, Mike McKee, Bruce McNeil, Nick MacTaggart, Ross Gibson and Michael Robertson. Replacements: Lindsay Gibson, William Blacklock, Keith Davies, Sean Goodfellow and Matty Douglas.