By Darin Hutson

Copyright thesouthernreporter

Saturday’s 22-12 win hosting Selkirk, following defeats of Melrose by 14-8 a week earlier and Hawick by 14-10 at the end of August, also at Poynder Park, saw them complete the home half of a regional grand slam and takes them up to fifth place in the table, on 13 points. Five rounds into the current season, co-head coaches Bruce McNeil and Nikki Walker’s team are the only Borderers in the top half of the table and they’re also the only ones to have made it into double figures for points. Co-gaffers Scott Wight and Iain Chisholm’s Melrose, beaten 36-31 at home to Currie Chieftains at the Greenyards on Saturday, their fourth loss on the spin, are sixth, on nine points and opposite number Graham Hogg’s Hawick – one of three teams on seven points, the others being seventh-placed Glasgow Hawks and second-from-bottom Heriot’s – are eighth following a 21-all draw hosting the latter at Mansfield Park on Saturday. Gordon Henderson’s Selkirk, without a top-flight win to their name since March, are bottom of the table on four points after seeing their losing start to the current campaign extended to a handful of games despite having scored more tries than the region’s three other representatives in the division – 16 to Melrose’s 15, Kelso’s 12 and Hawick’s ten. The coming weekend is a blank one for the premiership, its next fixture card being for Saturday, October 4. Another Borders derby, the fifth of the season, follows on that date, Selkirk hosting Melrose at Philiphaugh, with kick-off at 3pm, and Hawick and Kelso are both away at the same time, respectively to table-toppers Ayr and Hawks. The Greens, one match in, are second to league leaders Melrose, on a 100% return of eight points from two fixtures, with the Souters third after three games, the Pees fourth after two and Kelso fifth following one. Jed-Forest are sixth and Gala bottom, both without any points as yet. Openside flanker Will Jones scored two tries for Kelso and full-back Archie Barbour got their other, with right-winger and captain Dwain Patterson adding two conversions and a penalty to go four points clear at the top of the leaderboard for points kicked thus far this season with 37. Selkirk’s tries, one of them converted by scrum-half Hugo Alderson, were touched down by No 14 Josh Welsh and blindside flanker Monroe Job. Former Welsh under-20 international Jones was glad to see his side keep up their winning ways, telling Borders Rugby TV: “It was a great win. “Three Border derbies at home and three wins, you can’t ask for much more. “Everyone’s really dogged and willing to fight for wins.” Selkirk full-back Callum Anderson added: “We played a really good first half, I thought, but we came back out for the second half and just didn’t execute when we needed to, and fair play to Kelso, they did when they got chances. “We were getting into the right areas of the pitch but we just weren’t quite able to get over the try-line. “We’re losing games by the skin of our teeth. It’s just not quite going our way.” Scoring tries for Melrose were openside flanker Zander Mactaggart, blindside flanker Will Ferrie, scrum-half Doug Crawford, fly-half Roan Frostwick and No 8 Sam Derrick, with inside-centre Logan Karl kicking three conversions. Touching down the other way for their Edinburgh opponents, left a man short by a red card for Alex Maxwell for a high tackle, were Euan Crombie, Ed Hasdell at the double, Dan Halkon, Davies and Fraser Sayers, with Alex Harley adding three conversions. Melrose captain Angus Runciman was disappointed at losing for the fourth fixture on the bounce, saying: “Our performance was significantly better than against Kelso, but it couldn’t really get much worse, to be fair. “It was another good performance at home, but sadly we didn’t get enough points out of it.” A penalty try right at the death put Hawick on level pegging with Heriot’s and hooker and captain Fraser Renwick and tighthead prop Nicky Little scored their other tries, with fly-half Kyle Brunton converting both. Heriot’s tries were touched down by Henry Kesterton, Max Wallace and Noah Sakapaji, with Calum Jessop converting all three. “Fraser Renwick and his young Hawick squad showed huge desire to fight back from 21-7 down to secure a well-deserved share of the points against a strong Heriot’s side, visiting Mansfield Park off the back of a great win against Watsonians last week,” said a spokesperson for Hawick.