MELROSE 26 STIRLING COUNTY 8

Having tasted success at The Greenyards this season in the Charity Shield, Stirling County had every right to feel confident facing the Premiership champions. But, on the day, Stirling came up against an unyielding Melrose defence that gave them little chance to capitalise on their attacking game, writes Alan Lorimer.

Moreover, Melrose had an additional weapon in full-back, Fraser Thomson, who showed why he is a box-office attraction at The Greenyards by using his pace and vision to create three of his side’s four tries, the first for stand-off Jason Baggot and the second and third resulting in a brace for scrum-half Murdo Mcandrew.

The other Melrose try, credited to hooker Russell Anderson, came from a driving maul, mirroring a similar effort by Reyner Kennedy for Stirling, This latter score and a penalty goal by fullback Jonny Hope had given County an 8-7 lead but after that Melrose held sway, but not without a strong defensive effort to keep Stirling at bay.

Stirling moved the ball cleverly but, according to their coach, Eddie Pollock, their attack was too wide out. He said : “Where we could have beaten them today was through the forwards but we played away from this area too much. There have been other games when our backs have been on top. We need to learn where to play and when to play. Our setpiece was excellent and we kept the ball for long periods of time but we need to start turning effort into wins.”