Coach hails his ‘resilient’ title winners

MELROSE are not quite sure when they will get their hands on the RBS Premier One trophy, but coach Craig Chalmers has praised the club’s resilience in clinching a second successive title.

The focus at Melrose turns swiftly to the sevens tournament at the Greenyards this weekend, but victory at Boroughmuir on Friday night combined with Dundee’s defeat to Stirling County saw ‘Rose crowned Scottish champions for an eighth time since the official leagues were introduced in 1973-74.

“We didn’t make it easy for ourselves this season with games we lost, and then not playing well enough to win it outright on Friday night.

“But in many ways it was even more satisfying than last season because we came through despite losing our top point-scorers Scott Wight and Calum Anderson and missing 13 guys in total to injury, so we really had to dig deep into the depth at the club to achieve this success.

“But the plus side of that is the resilience the guys showed. We have a lot of quality players at the club and they showed that.”

Chalmers, who played through the six successes of the 90s, is already setting his sights on finishing this season by defending their own sevens title and the Kings of the Sevens crown before turning attention to the new, ten-team league championship.

“We will come back stronger next year and the players that have been handed chances this season will benefit from that” he explained.

“I said last week I wanted them to put their names up alongside the guys from the 1990s and they have done that because back-to-back titles are very hard to get, so it’s a great achievement for the club.”