London Scottish 28 - 12 Melrose: Craig Chalmers irate at ‘poor’ Melrose but Exiles earn right to home comfort

MELROSE head coach Craig Chalmers was left angered by his team’s inept British & Irish Cup performance and frustrated by referee Michael Black.

“We were poor in every aspect,” said the former Scottish international and British Lion. “We just didn’t compete in areas where we are normally good.” Referee Black hardly helped to make the game flow, standing too close to the breakdown on numerous occasions and simply getting in the way of players. He also missed much skulduggery on the ground from both teams.

“There were some strange decisions by the referee,” added Chalmers. “It just stopped us playing. It wasn’t the standard we expected.”

The Exiles capitalised on Melrose’s lacklustre approach and would have scored more tries but for some last-ditch defence and their own bad decision-making.

It left their coach Simon Amor bemoaning: “The guys created things well but we need to improve on our execution. We should have scored a lot more points against this side but I’m happy with the result.”

The game carried many mistakes, as illustrated by the high penalty count, plus two sin-binnings. Scottish managed to survive their 14-man period without the loss of a point but Melrose conceded a converted try in their ten-minute spell.

Winning captain Lewis Calder said: “It was an important victory for us, we have suffered a couple of big defeats fielding under strength sides in the competition so far and what with the opposition being from north of the border it was an important show of strength. It wasn’t pretty but we got the result.”

The Exiles’ goal-line defence was superb when called upon, as was that of Melrose, and four of the five tries came from running rugby. The fifth was a pushover scrum.

Exiles took the lead after seven minutes when a bright move across the line ended with inside centre Stuart Peel going in under the posts. Fly-half Dan Mugford converted.

Melrose drew level when Mugford’s clearance kick was charged down by his opposite number Scott Wight, who collected the ball to score under the posts, converting himself.

Mugford redeemed himself with a 43-yard penalty after Melrose centre Jamie Murray failed to roll clear. And the Exiles stretched their lead when full-back Oli Grove dived over the line wide on the left for a half-time score of 15-7.

Grove extended the home side’s lead with a 37-metre penalty before Melrose then tested the home defence, pinning the hosts onto their goal line for some seven minutes. The Exiles held firm but lost No 8 Willie Lipp to the sin-bin for failing to roll clear.

Soon after Melrose lost replacement hooker Richard Ferguson for ten minutes after an offence at the breakdown. The ensuing scrum was driven to the goal line and Scottish flanker James Kellard touched down. Mugford converted.

Melrose hit back through wing Alan Dodds who exploited a huge gap to score their second try, which went unconverted. Mugford had the last word with a 28-metre penalty.

Scorers: London Scottish: Tries: Peel, Grove, Kellard. Cons: Mugford (2). Pens: Mugford (2), Grove. Melrose: Tries: Wight, A Dodds. Con: Wight.

London Scottish: Grove; Holgate, MacDougall, Peel, Sole; Mugford, Heeks; Liffchak, McGrath, McKenzie, Thomas, Brown, Kellard, Calder, Lipp. Replacements used: Amor, Ratford, Kent, Grimstone, Karonias, Andrews, Lonergan.

Melrose: Thomson; A Dodds, Murray, Dick, Hardy; Wight, Colvine; Keen, Walker, Little, Miller, Eccles, Dalziel, Runciman, G Dodds. Replacements used: McGrath, Skeen, McCormack, Tamba, Ferguson, Johnson, Crawford.

Referee: Michael Black.