Selkirk 31
Melrose 21
FRIENDLY
SELKIRK triumphed in a thrilling ‘friendly’ Borders derby, which saw eight tries and three yellow cards.
Selkirk scored first through Callum McColm after a fine pass by Michael Rutherford.
Referee Malcolm Changleng then awarded a penalty try to Melrose for obstruction before Selkirk’s fly-half Gavin Craig scored a classy individual try.
Ross Ovens and Skeen then raced over to give Melrose a 21-14 interval lead.
Selkirk struck an early second-half blow when Niall Godsmark finished off a fine break by Callum Marshall.
Craig then jinked and crossing under the posts for his second. The hosts’ fifth try was scored by Scott Hendrie, returning after injury.
Gala 43
Jed-Forest 19
FRIENDLY
BOTH teams played with one eye on this Saturday when the Premiership begins to come to the end-of-season boil, writes Laing Speirs.
Gala recovered some of the pace and confidence that had disappeared from their game, and Jed-Forest, even if conceding seven tries, showed a lot of spirit and finished the stronger side.
Ewan McQuillin repeated his score against Jed at Riverside by coming round the front of the line-out to score at the corner. Alan Emond put Gala further ahead when he forced his way over, and then Andy McLean went in at the corner.
Ryan Miller had his forwards to thank for the effort that brought him Jed’s first try, but before the break, Luke Pettie and Fraser Hunter scored for the home side.
Gala’s two second-period tries came from Emond and George Graham, with two conversions by McLean,
Jed scored through Robert Hogg and David Grieve, with Scott converting the second.
Garnock 14
Langholm 11
NATIONAL DIVISION ONE
LANGHOLM were without several regulars for the journey to Garnock, but still looked like achieving victory up to the latter stages, writes John Smith.
After 15 minutes the home side were penalised for a ruck infringement inside their 22 and Langholm skipper Niall Cubbon slotted the kick before adding another for a 6-0 half time lead.
The second half got underway in heavy rain and it was the perfect start for Garnock as the pack drove forward to send Chris O’Donnell over to score and Rory Walker converted.
However, Langholm responded when No8 Stuart Graham drove over from a pick-up.
With 10 minutes remaining, the Garnock pack attacked the Langholm line through a number of rucks and recycles, which eventually broke the defence for a Chris Neill try which was converted.
Earlston 23
Dunbar 0
EAST DIVISION TWO A
MAN of the match Danny Orr kicked 13 points as Earlston put in their best performance of the season against unbeaten league leaders Dunbar.
Orr opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a penalty and, just before half-time, Darren Cessford took an offload from the surging George MacDougall to score a try, converted by Orr from far out.
Orr put over a penalty before Earlston were awarded a penalty try when winger Scott Marshall was impeded.
Orr sealed the victory with another penalty late on.
z Earlston RFC announced a five-year sponsorship of their Sevens tournament by Live at the BAR, with a fancy dress theme this year.
Club president Richard Aitchison said: “We have had a great partnership with Live at the BAR over the past five years, developing the off-field entertainment and creating one of the best days out in the Borders sporting calendar.”
Hawick Linden 39
Jed-Forest 2nds 11
FRIENDLY
A SUPERB second half performance by Hawick Linden put Jed-Forest 2nds to the sword.
Graeme Anderson opened the scoring for Linden before Jed hit a penalty goal.
Captain Graham Colville forced his way over and Steven Bouglas’ effort made it 17-6 at half-time.
Nathan Murray and Craig Mitchell added tries four and five, while Sean Fairbairn and another from Murray completed the rout.
Jed had a late try before the game was ended 12 minutes early as John Tait suffered a serious ankle injury which required surgery the next day.