Allan Massie: Club's diligence keeps event as one of rugby's highlights of the year

Published on Friday 10 April 2009 22:24

THAT, despite everything, the Melrose Sevens remains one of the greatest and most agreeable events in the rugby calendar says much for the determination and commitment of the club committee.

The transformation of the game following the IRB's decision to permit professionalism in 1995 might have irremediably damaged Melrose's big day, for, by removing current Scottish internationalists from the tournament, it threatened to deprive it of much public interest. Most of the teams now feature players who are often recognised only by members of their own clubs and who are scarcely even names to many spectators.

Melrose responded by continuing to invite guest sides from beyond Scotland, and, while this has meant that we often see a very high standard of play, especially in the later part of the afternoon, visiting teams made up often of young professionals or semi-pros have usually proved far to strong for Scottish club Sevens.

Consequently local interest tends to evaporate rather early. As David Ferguson remarked yesterday, no Scottish club has lifted the Ladies Cup for too long now, not indeed since Boroughmuir did so in 2002. The last Border victory came in 1999 when Gala, with a young Chris Paterson and Nathan Hines in their Seven beat the South African club Villager 28-5 in the final. This was all the more remarkable because Gala were then in the Second Division in Scotland (though they won it, and also the Scottish Cup, that season.)

Moreover, the players had also attended the Scottish Rugby Awards dinner, where they were named 'Team of the Year", the previous evening. Paterson and Hines then joined Edinburgh as professionals, and haven't played at Melrose since.

This year the Melrose committee seem to have loaded the dice less heavily against Scottish clubs, for the guest teams – Johannesburg University, Barrhaven Scottish (from Canada) and Leeds Metropolitan University – do not seem quite so overpoweringly formidable as has recently been the case, even though Leeds offer the chief attraction of the afternoon with the great Fijian Waisale Serevi, an honorary doctor of the university, in their squad. So perhaps there is a better chance of a home victory this year.

Naturally my own bias inclines me to hope for a Selkirk triumph. This would be unprecedented, for Selkirk have never lifted the Ladies Cup and indeed have reached the final only once, way back in 1897, which was actually ten years before the present club was formed. On paper we can put out a very good Seven, and indeed successes elsewhere mean that we are again the current "Kings of the Sevens" – a title admittedly easier for a Border club to gain since, unlike visitors, we play in all the qualifying tournaments. A few weeks ago our chances seemed better than they do today, for the luck which saw us escape serious injuries for most of the season has now run out. Moreover the XV has played six matches in the past three weeks (and has a cup quarter-final coming up against Edinburgh Accies on Tuesday). Exhaustion may be setting in; nevertheless hope springs eternal. We start with a hard tie against Heriot's, and , if we survive that, may come up against the hosts in the next round.

No club in modern times has a better record at Melrose than Kelso. They won seven out of twelve tournaments between 1978 and 1989 (inclusive), their greatest victory being perhaps the 22-16 defeat of the famous Racing Club de France in 1986. In addition Kelso were four times beaten finalists in the Nineties, their conquerors being Randwick, Irish Wolfhounds, Bay of Plenty and Manly. Since people, among them the Kelso maestro Andrew Ker, have been amusing themselves, and the rest of us, by selecting their perfect Seven this week – it's tempting, if one is to join in the game, to restrict one's selection to Kelso players from 1978-1995. Even then the question would be who to leave out. John Jeffrey or Adam Roxburgh, for instance? So, to avoid making such invidious choices, I've decided to name a favourite Seven without a single Kelso man in it.

Here goes then: Keith Robertson, Marcus Di Rollo, Chris Paterson, Mike Blair; Finlay Calder, Colin Deans, Peter Brown. It was tempting to name Duncan Paterson, the mastermind of the great Gala 7 of the late Sixties, to partner his nephew Chris at half-back, but Mike Blair, like Marcus Di Rollo and Chris Paterson, won the Player of the Tournament award at Melrose and never played there again. So it would be nice to see the three of them in action at the Greenyards once more. That Seven might not be the best defensively, but there is so much pace and handling skill there that they would surely score more tries than they conceded. And what wouldn't one give to see Finlay Calder, Colin Deans, and Peter Brown operating in concert? Let's put them up against a Kelso 7 of Roger Baird, Euan Common, Andrew Ker, Bob Hogarth, Eric Paxton, Gary Callander and John Jeffrey, and enjoy an imaginary feast.

Melrose offers so many happy memories. Let us hope more lie in store this afternoon.