Crowning moment for Melrose

Published on Sunday 15 May 2011 15:33

MELROSE captain Scott Wight emerged from another cracking sevens final to declare himself ready and willing to try his hand at professional rugby, and bearing fresh scars from a career striving to unearth the opportunity.

The 25-year-old stand-off has agreed a two-year contract with Glasgow and is just awaiting the paperwork to close a deal that he has dreamt of for more years than he can remember. Growing up near Melrose, the 6ft 2in, baby-faced, blond-haired lad watched every move made by Craig Chalmers, now his coach, wishing that he could experience a little of what Chalmers did at levels above the club game. After steering the club to the PD&F Jed-Forest Sevens Trophy and with it the BSPC Kings of the Sevens cup for a second successive year, a tired and bruised Wight returned to the Greenyards to discover he had won the club's Player of the Season award. As send-offs go it could hardly have been more laden with silver.

"This is probably the most success that Melrose have had for a long, long time," he said, "and to be the captain given the honour of lifting all those trophies has been a dream.

"The British and Irish Cup helped me hugely as a player and Melrose as a club. The league championship was the big one, but we wanted the Kings of the Sevens too. When you know you are good enough to win, losing takes you to a dark place. We had to finish on a high.

"And if this is my last season with Melrose, then it's a great way to finish. Coaches Craig Chalmers and John Dalziel, and all the backroom staff, are brilliant, very professional, always pushing and they have given us real belief.

"I have always wanted to play full-time rugby, and now I have the chance, and I don't want to go up to Glasgow and sit about. After a wee holiday with the family, I want to get into pre-season, improve my fitness and skills, and push for game-time.

"With Ruaridh (Jackson] away to the World Cup probably and Duncan Weir needing a rest when he comes back from the Junior World Championship, I'm hoping I might get a chance in pre-season games, but who knows? I know there are quality players at Glasgow. I'll probably be the old experienced head!"

He said that with a laugh, but it is true. Wight is not the quickest nor most skilful stand-off in the Scottish game, but, something of a jack of all fly-half trades, he is one of the most rounded game controllers going. Sean Lineen wants him to bring some game nous to a callow back line, but it comes with the irony that, despite being part of a strong fitness regime at Melrose, and having a sympathetic employer in Crawford's Builders, allowing release for the joiner for British and Irish Cup and Scotland club international travel, he has still held down a "proper" day job. So the work needed for body and mind to become that of a full-time professional should not be underestimated.

"I accept that," he said, "but I've got a two-year contract to give me time to get my fitness and strength and conditioning - and my head - to where it has to be. There are other great boys in the club game who are capable and would love this opportunity so I'm determined to prove as well that we can step up."The salary may not improve his current wages much so, as bold a move as it is by Lineen, it is a bolder one for the 25-year-old. Wight lives with his long-time partner Lucy and two-year-old daughter Zoe in Galashiels, and will now quit a working life he has known since school and consider where to live for the next two years, knowing he might even be back at Melrose next season. Clubs and the SRU are considering releasing first-year pros to their club of origin next term, instead of drafting them to clubs across the country.

One senses that Melrose will be happy putting off thoughts of next season for a while, however, as 2010-11 will take some beating. Few outside of Jedburgh believed this Melrose squad - rated as good as any to have represented the club - was not Kings-in-waiting on Saturday morning, but one can count on Border rivalries to threaten predictions.

Melrose overcame Edinburgh Accies, Peebles and Selkirk en route to Saturday's final, while Jed left no doubts about their desire on a sunny afternoon by scoring 131 points, and conceding just 14, in thumping wins over Stewart's Melville, Haddington and Heriot's.

But in a great final that had a 2-3,000 crowd roaring their approval, Melrose just held the edge in creativity, finishing skill and composure.

Darren Gillespie, a talented but temperamental Jed forward, lost his cool, probably in the face of sledging, and became more consumed with driving into and fighting Melrose players than the ball; fatal in sevens. Yet, with the superb sevens exponent that is Ross Goodfellow, promising youngster Andrew Nagle and sibling flyers Gregor and Lewis Young, in particular, Jed-Forest contributed much to the pulsating contest.

Allan Dodds and Callum Anderson put Melrose 14-0 up, with Wight's conversions. Lewis Young's brace and a Nagle try then pushed Jed in front before Melrose regained the lead through Anderson before Fraser Thomson raced to his first try off the bench.

A try by Player of the Tournament Jamie Murray was then ruled out - bizarrely due to Wight and Gillespie scrapping in the Melrose half - and Jed's Ewan Scott scored and converted. It was 26-24, a minute to go, the Jed trophy and Kings title both in the balance, and Riverside Park going crazy.

In a tense finish, however, Sale-bound Thomson killed Jed off with a neat chip-and-chase inside the Jed 22, an act that underlined the quality in this Melrose squad that very few have been able to match this season.Melrose: J Dalziel, J Murray, G Dodds, S McCormick, S Wight, ADodds, C Anderson. Subs: F Thomson, G Runciman, B Colvine.

Jed-Forest: A Nagle, M Weekley, D Gillespie, R Goodfellow, L Young, E Scott, G Young. Subs: D Grieve, J Hogg, D Gobby.

First round: Hamilton 14 Peebles 17, Melrose 33 Edinburgh Academical 14, Watsonians 14 Gala 36, Selkirk 29 Berwick 0, Haddington 29

Langholm 5, Jed-Forest 38 Stewart's Melville 7, Heriot's 24 Kelso 7, Hawick 26 Boroughmuir 14.

Second round: Peebles 19 Melrose 35, Gala 12 Selkirk 19, Haddington 7 Jed-Forest 43, Heriot's 28 Hawick 21.

Semi-finals: Melrose 33 Selkirk 12, Jed-Forest 50 Heriot's 0.

Final: Melrose 31 Jed-Forest 24.