Watsonians 10

Melrose 17

By Colin Renton

at Myreside

MELROSE edged closer to achieving a BT Premiership and BT Cup double when they saw off Watsonians at Myreside on Saturday.

It wasn’t the most swashbuckling performance the Greenyards men have produced this season, but it was clinical and effective rugby.

And that was enough to withstand the best efforts of a home side desperate to bounce back from defeat in the premiership play-off at the Greenyards the previous week.

Melrose had Scotland hooker Ross Ford released by Edinburgh to make his comeback after a lengthy absence through injury. He had a couple of early wobbles at the lineout, but proved his fitness with a solid contribution.

The visitors showed their game management skills to great effect in the first half when, after soaking up a good deal of pressure from the hosts, they sparked into life when Murdo McAndrew broke from deep then accelerated towards the Watsonians line before offloading to Jason Baggott who sent Ross McCann scampering in for a try which Craig Jackson converted.

The second score after 22 minutes also came after a spell on the defensive.

This time a scrum created the platform and Baggott almost made it on his own before he was foiled just short and James Head stepped in to set up Austin Lockington for the touchdown, with Jackson again adding the extras.

The chances of Watsonians overturning that deficit already looked remote but, to their credit, the Edinburgh outfit bagged a try through Jason Harries, converted by Ali Harris, before half time to keep themselves in the game.

The hosts restarted well but Melrose again soaked up the pressure and struck against the run of play.

The home side huffed and puffed but were unable to unlock the Melrose defence and had only three points from the boot of Harris to show for their efforts before a late flurry had Melrose on the rack.

However, there was no way through and Rob Chrystie’s men held on for a workmanlike win that sets up a showdown with Stirling County on finals day at BT Murrayfield.

Before then the focus will switch to the league decider with Ayr at the Greenyards this weekend.

“We will dust ourselves down. We’ve got a league final next so we will move onto that then we’ll take it from there”, said Chrystie.

“We have a busy couple of weeks ahead but it’s really exciting for the players.”

Melrose: F Thomson; A Lockington, G Taylor, C Jackson, R McCann; J Baggott, M McAndrew; D Elkington, R Ford, N Beavon, J Head, A Runciman, R Knott, G Runciman, I Moody. Subs: R Ferguson, R Anderson, R McLeod, A Grieve, B Colvine, G Wood, P Anderson.