IT was a bold move by Peebles RFC to switch their sevens tournament from the traditional late April date to the first weekend in August but at the end of an afternoon of compelling competition the new formula has to be judged a success.
Not all went smoothly, however. A couple of late call-offs meant that fill-in sides were required to make up the list of 16 clubs in the competition, prompting a format rethink.
“In recent seasons we’ve played our sevens in wind, rain and even snow,” said the Peebles Sevens convenor, Allan Beveridge, adding: “A summer date seemed obvious for us."
Club president Bob Hogarth added: “We thought about making it a 12-team tournament and will consider that for next season.
“That would allow us to operate a pool system which would guarantee each club a minimum of two games. And that’s what you want at this time of year.”
In the event Melrose used the Peebles tournament to make a winning start to their 2016-17 Kings of the Sevens campaign with victory over last season’s runners-up, Watsonians, in a tense and exciting final.
The unseeded draw meant that both finalists had to battle harder than usual through the first and second rounds. Melrose went to extra time before defeating the Kings of the Sevens title holders, Jed-Forest, 17-12 in their first round tie while Watsonians were pushed all the way by Selkirk in a 20-19 win.
Then in the quarter finals Melrose scraped past Gala by a single score to win 10-5 and there was a similar battle for Watsonians who edged out Hawick 19-17, the Greens having paid the penalty of a yellow card shown to Bruce McNeil.
A 22-5 win over hosts, Peebles, secured Melrose their place in the final while for Watsonians a strong second half performance against Powerbombs took the Myresiders to the last stage.
In the final Melrose established a 17-7 interval lead with tries by David Colvine, Ali Grieve and Fraser Thomson to a try for Watsonians by Angus Duckett. But tries by Rory Steele and Euan McKean levelled the scores. Then in injury time Melrose clinched the Peebles title with a winning try from their new recruit, Ross McCann, the Scotland under-19 cap and a 2016 McPhail scholarship holder.
Results Gala 26 St Boswells 7, Jedforest 12 Melrose 17, Kelso 48 Earlston 7, Peebles 29 President’s V11 5, Biggar 12 Powerbombs 31, Edinburgh Accies 33 Select VII 14, Selkirk 19 Watsonians 20, Berwick 0 Hawick 55 Quarter final Gala 5 Melrose 10, Kelso 19 Peebles 24, Powerbombs 24 Edinburgh Accies 7, Watsoniabs 19 Hawick 17 Semi final Melrose 22 Peebles 5, Powerbombs 19 Watsonians 33 Final Melrose 22 Watsonians 17
Melrose N Irvine-Hess, R Knott, A Grieve, M McAndrew, C Jackson, A Lockington, F Thomson, G Wood, R McCann, D Colvine
Watsonians R Greenhough, R Cullen, A Duckett, J Ferguson, E McKean, R Steele, S McKean, C Harris, D Balfour, M Kennedy
Referee D Changleng
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here