THERE were valuable victories for Hawick, Gala, Melrose and Biggar this weekend as live rugby returned to the Borders.

And we have a mouth-watering Under-18 National Shield final between Gala Wanderers and Melrose Wasps to look forward to.

Hawick moved into third place in the Premiership with a comprehensive 36-12 home victory over Musselburgh. Hawick’s tries came from Stuart Graham (2), Shawn Muir, Ronan McKean, Glen Welsh and Deaglan Lightfoot with three conversions from Kirk Ford. This result secures the green’s place in the play-offs.

Currie Chieftains beat Jed-Forest 46-5 with Jed’s points coming from a Mason Cullen try.

Selkirk went down 10-20 to Glasgow Hawks at Philiphaugh. Their tries came from Callum Anderson and Luke Pettie.

In National League One Gala maintained their good form with a 25-12 victory over Watsonians in Edinburgh. The Gala tries came from Matt Reid, Marius Tamosaitis, Angus Dun and Rex Jeffrey with conversions from Harris Rutherford and Scott Peffers.

Melrose beat Highland 34-12 at the Greenyards with their tries coming from captain Richard Ferguson, Gavin Wood (2), James Brown, Jack Dobie and Donald Crawford. Struan Hutchison added two conversions.

Elsewhere Biggar beat Cartha Queen’s Park 31-0 away from home and Kelso lost 24-19 to league leaders Heriot’s Blues.

In National League Two Peebles lost 51-7 to Dumfries and in National League Three Berwick beat Ardrossan Accies 41-24 away from home.

In East League One Duns went down 55-14 away to Portobello. In East League Two Hawick Linden lost 13-36 at home to North Berwick and in east League Three Earlston lost 7-24 at home to Lismore and Gala YM went down 35-14 to Edinburgh Northern.

In the Reserve East One Selkirk A lost 22-24 to Edinburgh Accies and Jed-A beat Hawick Force 21-19.

In Reserve East League Two Gala A lost 24-22 away to Lasswade, Peebles Reds beat Leith A 19-3 in Edinburgh, Melrose Storm beat Linlithgow 48-11 and Kelso Sharks hammered Preston Lodge A 86-5 in Prestonpans.

In the National U18 Cup semi-finals Hawick Youth drew 17-17 with West of Scotland but lost on the yellow card rule.

In the National U18 Shield semi-finals Gala Wanderers beat Dumfries 44-7 and Melrose Wasps beat Whitecraigs 43-7 to set up a Borders derby final.