THE LATEST round of the Kings of the Sevens took place at Mansfield Park in Hawick last weekend, with Melrose winning the main event.

To show their appreciation to the work carried out by the NHS during the pandemic, staff were given free-entry to the stadium.

The festival started in Friday night with a ‘Teri Touch’ tournament which was won by the Vet Warriors’ who picked up the Lovat Mills Trophy, donated by the management at Lovat.

The Warriors were marshalled by Kevin Reid who played 428 times for Hawick along with Craig Geer.

The following day saw the men’s Kings of the 7s Tournament (Hawick 7s) with 11 clubs taking part after Selkirk were forced to withdraw due to a COVID scare.

Because of that, Kelso and Edinburgh Accies played off to decide who won the group, with the Borderers emerging triumphant.

Holders Jed Forest overcame Berwick and Watsonians to win Pool B, Melrose won Pool C which contained Gala and Boroughmuir and Hawick beat Musselburgh and Peebles to take Pool D.

In the semi-finals, Melrose beat Hawick 26-10 and Jed beat Kelso 26-7 to set up a thrilling final.

Both sides had lengthy spells of possession before Rory Marshall opened the scoring with an unconverted try to give Jed a 5-0 lead.

But Kieran Clark touched down under the posts to make the half-time score 7-5 in favour of Melrose.

Clarke added another try at the corner then Struan Hutchison scored to make it 19-5.

A late try by Lewis Young made the final score Melrose 19 Jed Forest 12.

After the final whistle Melrose’s David Colvine told Border rugby TV: “I think what carried us through was the grit and determination that the boys showed straight from the off. It was a tough day, three or four ties and having to dig deep for the final and the boys did just that.

Clark was voted player of the tournament and Colvine added: “Kieran is an outstanding player. He has got that real spark and has a long career in front of him but he’s not the only one. We have a young and in-depth squad and you can see that shining through.”

Melrose currently top the K7s table with 13-points, three ahead of Jed.

Hawick and Gala both have eight points and Selkirk have seven. Watsonians have five and Peebles and Edinburgh Accies both have three.

Ahead of the tournament spectators watched Hawick Force beat Jed-Forest 2nds 24-0.

On Sunday Peebles beat Gala 22-0 in the final of the U16 tournament then Selkirk beat Gala 28-21 in a very entertaining final in what was a great advert for U18 rugby to round off a wonderful three-days of rugby.