WATSONIANS completed an amazing sevens’ double as they drove to success in the Five Star Taxis Gala Sevens on Sunday to follow up the club’s success in the Haddington tournament 24 hours earlier.

In a hugely successful day for the club, Watsonians played some exhilarating rugby in all its ties to finally extinguish the Borders challenge in the 125th Gala tournament by thumping Jed-Forest 38-5 in the final.

This followed a defeat from Edinburgh Rugby and a win over Melrose to reach the semis on most points scored and where they defeated Glasgow Warriors to become possibly the first club ever to lose a sevens’ tie and still win the tournament.

Now coach and former supremo sevens player, Andrew Ker, has his sights earmarked on the Kings of the Sevens title and ironically in which a new trophy is being presented for the highest-placed club to finish outwith the Borders.

“I hope that this will be the start of a real challenge for the Kings of the Sevens title,” said Ker. “We had four ties at Haddington on Saturday and another four at Gala, and so the guys are reasonably fit. I hope that we can crack on from here.

“We have not done any sevens practice. We could not concentrate on that because of the 15s (they won National League 1) and so this gets the guys into the ‘run of it’. It was two sevens successes on the trot and they have to do that in the season (on Borders circuit).

“I always want to go for it, and it we can stick clear of injuries, we are in with a real shout.”

On the tournament, he added: “That was as good a sevens that I have seen Watsonians play and a good foundation for the rest of the season.”

Watsonians played with pace and power in the final with Scott McKeand running in three tries with the others from Mark Bertram and Rory Drummond while Lewis Young scored a consolation try for Jed.

Jed had been the most impressive of the Borders clubs, winning their section in the pool-style tournament before ousting Gala, last season’s winners, in the first of the semis.

Watsonians, who improved in the every tie, lost by only three points to Edinburgh before crushing a tired Melrose after its exertions at Ayr and then squeezing out Warriors.

There was consolation for Edinburgh in the Bowl final and Melrose in the Plate final.

The introduction of Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors added prestige to the day, but Watsonians and Jed proved that pro sides may add flavour, but need to do more than simply turn up.

And while Gala crashed out in the semis, President Graham Low said: “It has been a fantastic day. The crowd was up 20 per cent on last year.

“We made a big weekend of it with the lunch hosted by Richie Gray and Chris Paterson and Nathan Hines there and all went without a hitch.”

Results

Pool 1: Peebles 7, Edinburgh Accies 24; Gala 40, Peebles 10; Gala 50, Edinburgh Accies 0.

Pool 2: Jed-Forest 12, Selkirk 10; Jed-Forest 28, Hawick 22; Selkirk 14, Hawick 31.

Pool 3: Edinburgh Rugby 29, Watsonians 26; Edinburgh Rugby 17, Melrose 26; Watsonians 36, Melrose 5.

Pool 4: Glasgow Warriors 35, Boroughmuir 26; Glasgow Warriors 36, Kelso 0; Boroughmuir 31, Kelso 26.

Semi-finals. Gala 19, Jed-Forest 26; Watsonians 21, Glasgow Warriors 17.

Final. Jed-Forest 5, Watsonians 38.

Bowl. Semi-finals. Edinburgh Accies 14, Hawick 24; Edinburgh Rugby beat Boroughmuir. Final. Hawick 17, Edinburgh Rugby 26.

Plate. Semi-finals. Peebles 7, Selkirk 52; Melrose 31, Kelso 10. Final. Selkirk 19, Melrose 21.

Jed-Forest: G. Law, C. Cowan, F. Harkness, C. Cullen, L. Young, R. Marshall, R. Shirra-Gibb, G. Mein, H. Synman, R. Combe.

Watsonians: R. Drummond, E. Miller, M. Bertram, J. Ferguson, A. Chalmers, R. Steele, A. Davidson, S. McLeod, A. Harris, S. McKeand.