Stirling’s ‘best of the season’ sinks Melrose

Stirling County made a successful start to the defence of their National Youth League under-18 Cup title by defeating Melrose Wasps on Saturday in the preliminary round of the competition.

In what Stirling’s Academymanagerstewartmilne described as “the best performance of the season” by his team, County ran in eight tries away from home to win 50-19.

He added: “There are definitely still things to improve and we’ll need to build again for the quarterfinal [next month] but this was a good day against a well-drilled and dangerous Melrose side. The slightly one-sided score line is testament to some brilliant last-five defence on our part and being clinical in the opposition 22.” Wing Harry Wilson claimed two touchdowns, the other tries for Stirling coming from No 8 Ranald Maxwell, wing James Isgrove, second row Euan Cairns, front rows Callum Hunter and Kevin Crainey and full-back Cameron Blance. Scrum-half Fraser Craig converted five.

For an ambitious Wasps side this was a disappointing result after a successful run in their local competition and perhaps points to the need for tougher games on a regular basis than that offered by the Borders Semi Junior League, where the standard of rugby is much too variable.

Backs Roly Brett and Ross Lille and prop Joe Noble scored Wasps’ tries.

Meanwhile at Meggetland, Boroughmuir suffered a shock 15-14 Cup defeat at the hands of Cartha QP. The two clubs met last season in the final of the National Youth under-16 Cup when Boroughmuir romped to a big victory over the Glasgow side. But on Saturday Cartha turned the tables to produce a dramatic win.

Elsewhereintheunder-18 Cup, Ellon overran Stewartry to win 50-0 while the game between Dundee and Hawick Youth was postponed until this coming weekend. Hawick’s under-16 Cup home match against Perthshire was also rescheduled and will be played this Sunday.