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Co-head coaches Scott Wight and Iain Chisholm’s visitors, now the region’s top dogs in the ten-team table, were seventh at kick-off, a rise of three places on a week earlier, but have edged up to sixth, on 20 points from nine fixtures, just one win behind fifth-placed Heriot’s and six points off the division’s play-off places. A 34-26 win at home to second-placed Currie Chieftains takes Nikki Walker and Bruce McNeil’s Kelso up from second to bottom to seventh, on 18 points from nine matches. Head coach Gordon Henderson’s Selkirk, like Graham Hogg’s Hawick, are heading in the opposite direction following a 45-21 beating at home to table-toppers Ayr, falling from sixth to ninth, on 16 points from nine games, with the Greens on 15 from eight. Melrose’s try-scorers as they claimed their first victory at Mansfield Park for seven years were inside-centre Declan Mulcahy at the double, lock Oliver Furness, left-winger Paddy Anderson and replacement Angus Weir, with a penalty try also being awarded by referee Michael Todd and scrum-half Scott Clark kicking three conversions and a penalty. Hawick’s tries, one of them converted by scrum-half Zach Lewis, were touched down by full-back Charlie Welsh, outside-centre Andrew Mitchell, hooker and captain Fraser Renwick and replacement Calum Renwick. Wight was impressed by how his side went about securing their third win of the season, telling Borders Rugby TV: “I thought the boys were getting close to a complete performance. “There are still a couple of areas we need to sharpen up on but I thought we were the dominant team in quite a lot of facets, which is really, really pleasing, especially across at Mansfield Park. “For us, it’s all about just building a bit of momentum. We’ve been so close and we’ve competed most weeks. It’s a great confidence boost for the boys to win back to back. “We played some good rugby. We posed threats across the field and I thought we played really well.” Home skipper Renwick was disappointed by his team’s display, however, saying: “We’re bitterly disappointed but we need to move on. We need to take learnings from that and move on quickly. “The result and performance weren’t where we’ve been at for the last month probably. “Credit to Melrose, they came with a game-plan to match us physically up front and their back-line’s dangerous when they get go-forward. “We’re far better than that – we’re a far better team than we showed. “We need to take our medicine. It’ll hurt for a few weeks now because we’ve got a break but we’ll come back swinging.” A hat-trick of tries from co-head coach McNeil helped Kelso inflict back-to-back beatings in the Borders on Currie. The Edinburgh outfit’s 34-26 loss at Poynder Park at the weekend followed one by 38-26 at Hawick just over two weeks earlier, those being their only defeats of this season other than one by 43-40 away to league leaders Ayr in mid-September. It was Kelso’s first win against Currie since one by 25-20 at home back in January 2024, having lost to them home and away last season, by 54-38 in March and 33-14 the month prior respectively. It also took McNeil’s tally of tries versus Currie to eight in their last four meetings, having crossed their line four times seven months ago and once a year ago in January. The hosts’ other try-scorers besides their veteran No 8 were scrum-half William Tweedie and openside flanker Will Jones, with fly-half and co-captain Dwain Patterson adding three tries and a penalty. Touching down for Currie were Alex Harley, Sam Cardosi, Scott Robeson and Kody McGovern, with Harley kicking two conversions and Glen Faulds another. McNeil was delighted to see his team claim their fourth victory of this term, saying: “We stayed in the fight and we stuck to our structures. “I thought we put Currie under a lot of pressure with and without the ball, which was pleasing. “It wasn’t quite an 80-minute performance but the dog and the fight were there for the most part. “There’s loads to work on but a lot of positives there.” Selkirk might have ended up beaten for the seventh time this season at home to Ayr but it was a closer-run thing than a final scoreline of 45-21 suggests, with the hosts having been in front on the hour mark, by 21-19. Touching down tries for the Souters were blindside flanker Monroe Job, right-winger Josh Welsh and fly-half Morris Clementson, all three converted by the No 10. Ayr’s try-scorers at Philiphaugh as they kept up their 100% start to the season with an eighth bonus-point win on the bounce were Alex McGuire and Jamie Shedden at the double, Blair Macpherson, Luca Bardelli and Ed Bloodworth, with Scott Watson kicking four conversions and Bardelli another. Selkirk full-back Callum Anderson felt his side were the better team for most of the match, though, crucially, not when it mattered most, saying: “For the first 60 minutes, to be fair, we matched them physically and probably were the better team – and I don’t think they’d disagree with that – with the kind of rugby we played, line-breaks and things like that, it was just in the final quarter that we drifted away. “Overall, I’m happy with how we played in spells and we probably deserved more out of the game. “It was just maybe lack of concentration as the game went on or it was our expectations, that we expected to fade away in the last 20 minutes. “It’s maybe just a mindset change we need. We need to keep our foot on the throat and doing the same things that we’d done in the first 60 minutes. “It’s just that last 20 minutes – other teams are bound to have purple patches and it’s about whether or not we can ride the storm and unfortunately we’ve not been able to.” The premiership rugby season now takes a three-week break, resuming on Saturday, November 22. Kelso and Selkirk are at home to Edinburgh opposition that day, Watsonians and Currie Chieftains respectively, and Melrose and Hawick are on the road, to Heriot’s and Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians. The Greenyards club’s game in the capital kicks off at 2pm, with the other three starting an hour later.
