Currie Chieftains – whose application to be part of the new Super 6 league was rejected by a secretive SRU selection panel headed by chief executive Mark Dodson – moved up to second place in the table with one round of matches to go in this last ever Tennent's Premiership season with this emphatic victory over last year’s champions.

They cannot catch top-of-the-table Ayr, but if they hold on to their current ranking then they will secure a home semi-final draw in the play-offs, and they will have made a very pertinent point about the credibility of the new competition for which the selection criteria has never been made clear.

To add insult to injury for Chieftains, their head coach Ben Cairns had to make the difficult decision to leave the club mid-season to take on a Super 6 role with Stirling County. He was replaced by his assistant and brother, Mark, who paid tribute to the overall ethos of the club after Saturday’s win.

“Missing out on Super 6 was difficult for us,” he said. “We got rated ‘outstanding’ for rugby in terms of criteria, which is surely what rugby clubs should be about, but we just have to get on with it.

“We’ve built a really good culture at the club, so no matter who comes in you’ve got a bunch of players who know what we stand for, and we’ve got more talent in the club now than we’ve ever had, so it doesn’t matter who is coaching. I’m not doing much, I’m just making sure the boys have got the right mindset to go out there and execute their game-plan.”

Which is exactly what Chieftains did on Saturday. Winger Ben Robbins opened the scoring for the visitors with a try in six minutes, and scrum-half Chris Davies doubled his team’s account before 20 minutes were up with a close-range effort after a powerful burst from Robbie Nelson. Gregor Hunter converted both scores.

Melrose rallied and, after 20 minutes of pressure, they got a try back just before half-time through Neil Irvine-Hess, which was converted by Craig Jackson. Hunter and Jackson exchanged penalties at the start of the second half, and it remained a seven-point game until just under 10 minutes to go, when Matt Hooks wriggled through a couple of tackles to score the try which finally broke the home team’s resolve.

Second-row Vince Wright galloped home for the bonus-point score two minute later after some good build-up work from Joe Reynolds and Robbins.

“I just felt that although they had a lot of possession, we looked more dangerous when we were on the ball, and that our defence was coping really well with what they were throwing at us,” said Cairns. “I knew from them carrying a few knocks, and having to make a few replacements, that as long as we continued to be solid and disciplined then eventually the game would open up in the last 20 minutes, and that’s what happened.

That defeat means Melrose drop from second to fourth in the table. “We’ll probably be going away to Ayr for the play-off semi-final, and we like going there, so we’ll be looking forward to it,” insisted head coach Rob Chrystie.