Melrose 50

Cartha QP 13

David Morrison

at the Greenyards

IT WAS only a few months ago that Melrose suffered one of their worst ever results when they were humbled by Cartha.

If revenge was on the minds of the Greenyards players, they didn't take long to start righting the wrong.

After only two minutes Matthew Klein burst through the visiting defence to score in the corner.

Melrose continued to push Cartha back and it wasn't long until they had added to the scoreboard.

James Brown collected deep and managed to evade two defenders on his way towards the line for his team's second try.

David Colvine made it 12-0 with the conversion.

Cartha steadied the ship somewhat in the 13th minute as Joe Ross slotted a penalty.

But it was Melrose who were back on the front foot again from the restart.

Another break from deep was rounded off by Aidan Cross, and Colvine added the conversion.

Approaching the half hour Brown scored again - and again it was his pace that took him round the Queen's Park defence for the bonus point.

Colvine's conversion made it 26-3.

Another burst from the half way line took Ethan McVicker within a few metres of the Cartha line, and the recycled ball allowed Gregor Lindsay to cross out wide.

Just before half time the visitors did pull a score back.

A rolling maul made the valuable yards for Cameron MacMillan to touch down in the corner.

But at 31-8 there was little chance of Cartha turning the game around in the second half.

Another rolling maul in the 52nd minute did lead to Mark Barrowman scoring again for the visitors.

But Melrose responded with a fine cross-field kick from Donald Crawford a couple of minutes later which Cross collected to score.

Ben McLean added another try for Melrose just after the hour.

Colvine again found his range from out wide with the conversion.

And in the closing minutes the home team reached the half century with Christian Smit taking an excellent interception to race between the posts.

Colvine's conversion was greeted by the final whistle.

Melrose: D Colvine, L Mallin, A Cross, M Klein, J Brown, D Crawford, E McVicker, J Fairley, B McLean, J Dobie, T Brown, G Lindsay, C Folan, G Runciman, T Andrews. Reps: L Kirk, C Fairbairn, W Owen, G McWilliam & C Smit.

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