MELROSE’S promotion hopes suffered a blow last week when the club lost their appeal against a sanction imposed for not having enough front-row replacements during their 20-15 victory at Biggar in October.

The Borderers did not have a replacement for Will Owen on the bench which led to scrums going uncontested after he went off.

Melrose remain third in the table on 48 points from 12 games, but they’re now five points behind table-toppers Kelso and second-placed Ayr, though they have a game in hand on the coastal side.

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Head coach Bert Grigg accepted responsibility for the error but insists that the mistake will not be repeated.

He told Borders Rugby TV: “It’s been confirmed that we have a two-point deduction as we weren’t compliant with the laws and regulations in our away win up at Biggar earlier in the season.

“We weren’t compliant with the correct amount of front row replacements within our matchday 20.

“We only had one tighthead in our squad and unfortunately our tighthead got injured just before half time and our replacement prop wasn’t experienced on the tighthead side.

“So we were unable to replace our tighthead at the first time of asking which is the law now.

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“It was a bit of an oversight from myself as head coach and I’ll take that one on the chin.

“It was my decision not to have somebody that can play both sides within that squad.

“It’s certainly a lesson learned for me and it won’t be a mistake we will commit again.

“It gives me a bit more motivation to make sure that we are helping the squad achieve what we want to achieve at the end of the season and ultimately that’s promotion.

“We are now five points behind the leaders Kelso instead of three so realistically it’s still the same scenario. We can’t afford any slip ups and we’ve got tough games post-Christmas.

“We’ve got Ayr at home on January 7, Dundee then Biggar at home, Kelso away then Gala on the last day of the season.

“And even some of the other games I’ve not mentioned, there are no easy games in National One.

“The picture really hasn’t changed in terms of what we need to do to achieve our overall goal at the end of the season.

“It just means that we need to be squeaky clean in terms of performances and getting our performances right in terms of picking up results.

“And that starts on January 7 when we entertain Ayr at home and that keeps the pressure up at the top end of the table.”