Club Rugby

Melrose finished off a near-perfect Premiership season with a scrappy, hard-earned victory over defending champions Ayr in the play-off final.

The SRU has received 12 applications from clubs to form franchises in the new part-time professional Super 6 league which is due to launch in the 2019/20 season.

Scotland hooker Ross Ford will make his return to action after five months out when he plays for Melrose in the BT Cup semi-final against Watsonians at Myreside tomorrow.

The deadline for applications for a Super Six franchise is fast approaching, Saturday 31 March, one day ahead of April Fool’s, is the cut-off point. Scottish Rugby recently stated that as many as 13 separate entities had given notes of interest although not all of them will throw their hat into the ring. The winners will be announced one month later, on 1 May.

Ayr will not give up their title easily. There were times earlier in the season when even a place in the play-offs was in jeopardy, and times in this Premiership semi-final when they were just clinging on. But they got there in the end, and travel to the Greenyards for the final in two weeks with their morale as high as it has been since the memorable day last spring when they were crowned champions at that very venue.

For a second successive season Melrose will contest the final of the Premiership play-offs after reaching the last stage of the competition with a sizeable win over Watsonians at the Greenyards.

Boroughmuir live to fight another season in the BT Premiership after securing a bonus-point win over Glasgow Hawks.

If Baltic conditions had not prevailed last night there would surely have been dancing in the streets of Hawick following the Greens’ handsome win over Melrose that secured continued membership of the BT Premiership.

Marr did what they had to: secured the bonus-point win they needed, but, with Melrose losing at Hawick, it wasn’t enough and they will go back to National League 1 next season.

In a match that meant little to either side in terms of the BT Premiership, Melrose had enough power to eke out yet another home win.

Ayr defeated Watsonians 27-17 to clinch third place in the BT Premiership and a play-off semi-final away to Currie. Sonians finish fourth in the table and will be on the road to Melrose in their last four clash.

A cracking first half performance from Marr earned them this win over Currie Chieftains and kept their slim chances of avoiding relegation alive.

Ayr made amends for last week’s BT Cup quarter-final loss at Mansfield Park with this bonus-point BT Premiership win in the glaur of Millbrae – the victory taking them closer to a place in the play-off semi-finals next month.

County president John Wright flagged up in his match programme notes that this was likely to be a nail-biter in the battle for BT Premiership survival.

Melrose put any residual effects of their January jitters behind them by defeating Heriot’s to guarantee a home final in the play-offs if the Greenyards men win their semi.

Watsonians advanced to the last four of the BT Cup when they posted a dramatic victory over a battling Boroughmuir side that had showed plenty of character to square matters.

Currie strengthened their hopes of reaching the 
BT Premiership play-offs with victory on one of the
glue-pot back pitches at Old Anniesland, while Hawks must face up to the reality of a relegation battle.

The Hawick bandwagon crashed into the Myreside buffers as Watsonians chalked up an impressive win that keeps them firmly on track for a play-off spot.

Marr were comprehensively mauled at home by a rampant Melrose, whose seven-tries-to-nil victory guaranteed them a home play-off semi-final at the end of the season.