Melrose 24 - 22 Boroughmuir: Chalmers relieved to scrape win

CRAIG CHALMERS wore the sheepish smile of a man who had lost a penny but found a pound as he looked back on this match.

At least the Melrose coach had the good grace to concede that his side were slightly lucky to come through it with their unbeaten record still intact.

Having outscored Boroughmuir by three tries to one, it would be unfair to say that his team had not deserved the win – but given that they survived a late penalty attempt from Harry Leonard which would have clinched the points for the Meggetland outfit, he was acutely aware that their failure to kill Boroughmuir off when they had the chance could have been a very costly lapse in ruthlessness.

“To play poorly and still get the win is a positive. The only other thing we can take satisfaction from is that our defence was pretty good – most of the time,” said Chalmers. “I thought we were a little bit predictable in everything we did. We made too many mistakes. In the first half we had plenty of possession and territory but didn’t turn that into points. In the second half we gave away a soft try; and we were a little bit lucky with our third try because I think there might have been a knock-on.

“We had one or two players out. Gary Holborn was missing and Grant Runciman called off this morning with his shoulder, and we missed his pace and work-rate in the pack. So we had to rely on a few different guys to come in and do a job for us – which they did, in fairness, because we won the game.”

Melrose were six points behind within ten minutes thanks to a drop-goal and penalty from Ali Warnock, and it might have been more had Sep Visser stretched his arm a few inches further when he was felled close to the home team’s line.

Andrew Skeen reduced the deficit with a penalty from in front of the posts in the 15th minute, and finally Melrose started to exert a bit of control. But they were guilty of trying to be too cute and allowed a couple gilt-edged opportunities to slip through their fingers. Bruce Colvine tried a pop pass back inside over his left shoulder to Graeme Dodds when the easier offload to his right would surely have sent John Dalziel over. Then Jamie Murray got in the scoring zone on the right and decided to swing round to touch down closer to the posts, only for Andrew Rose to appear out of nowhere and bundle the red-faced centre over the dead ball line.

Finally, however, the pressure took its toll on Boroughmuir’s defence, and Colvine wrong footed everyone to open up a gap for a try under the posts. Boroughmuir’s Iain Moody was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball and, after Colvine had been held up over the line, Skeen touched down on the stroke of half-time to make it 17-6 at the break.

You fancied Melrose to build from here but it didn’t take long for Boroughmuir, and particularly their full-back Sep Visser, to make the point that this was still very much a live contest. The Dutchman took advantage of Colvine’s misjudgement of the bounce to collect his own chip ahead and canter home unchallenged from 30 yards.

Warnock hit the outside of the post as Boroughmuir continued to up the ante, and even when Nick McGrath scored Melrose’s third try under the posts after good work down the right by Fraser Thomson, the Edinburgh side continued to push.

Warnock kicked two penalties and Leonard slotted another so there were only two points in it with eight minutes to go, and with Graeme Dodds in the cooler for illegally trying to prevent Boroughmuir generating quick ruck ball, a tense finale was on the cards.

Scott Wight, who started on the bench after being released by Glasgow Warriors for this match, won Melrose a penalty near the halfway line by pressurising Stevie Wilson on the deck, but could not find the length to turn it into three points. That meant Leonard’s late opportunity from over 40 yards out and five yards in from the touchline would have stolen the points – but he snatched at it and got neither the line nor the required length.

Scorers: Melrose – Tries: Colvine, Skeen, McGrath; Cons: Skeen 3; Pen: Skeen. Boroughmuir – Try: Visser; Con: Warnock: Pens: Warnock 3, Leonard; DG: Warnock.

Melrose: F Thomson; N McGrath, J Murray, C Murray (S Wight 45), J Helps; A Skeen, B Colvine (S McCormick 66); C Keen, R Ferguson, N Beavon (K Cooney 33-65), P Eccles, R Miller (R Ovens 75), J Dalziel, G Elder, G Dodds..

Boroughmuir: S Visser; R Bradford, H Leonard, S Wilson, J Webster; A Warnock, S Johnson; N Fraser (J Latta 25), S Crombie, B Bryce, G Scott (A Davidson 45), M Harvey, J Swanson (N Rodger 37), A Rose, I Moody