Thumping win is icing on cake for Chrystie
● Melrose narrow gap at the top as leaders Ayr lose thriller against Currie Chieftains
Melrose’s players helped head coach Rob Chrystie round off a good few days by defeating Glasgow Hawks on Saturday and edge closer to Tennent’s Premiership leaders Ayr.
Last midweek, Chrystie was reappointed head coach of the Scotland Club XV for their matches in early 2019.
And a number of his Melrose players made an early claim for selection in that representative team with solid performances in their 49-7 triumph at Balgray over Hawks at the weekend.
Russell Anderson and Patrick Anderson both scored two tries apiece, while Rory Darge, James Head and Jason Baggott also crossed for the visitors.
“I am very pleased to have come away from this difficult trip with a bonus point win,” Chyristie said.
“It was a tough first half but the third try by Patrick Anderson just before the break gave us a bit of breathing space.”
Gary Strain bagged Hawks’ only try and they are in eighth place in the table. Melrose are now just a point behind leaders Ayr after the latter lost out 24-23 at Currie Chieftains.
Into the last ten minutes Ayr were up 20-12, but the hosts found something extra at Malleny Park with late tries from Fergus Scott and Graeme Carson.
And – worryingly for Currie’s rivals for the end of season play-off spots – their head coach Ben Cairns feels his team were not at their best.
“We can play a lot better than that, they can play a lot better than that,” the former Scotland centre said.
“There were lots of mistakes. The trouble we were having with the mistakes we were making was that it gave them
scrums where they were dominant.
“The win was really down to guts.”
Matt Hooks had earlier scored two tries for Currie in a triumph that lifted them back up to fourth in the table. Steven Longwell, Blair Macpherson and returning skipper Pete Mccallum scored Ayr’s tries.
Gavin Parker put in a great performance for Boroughmuir as they backed up their recent win against Currie with a hard-fought bonus-point victory at Hawick.
The visitors to Mansfield Park took the lead in the 16th minute when Jordan Edmunds scored a try and Parker converted, but 7-0 was the way things stayed until half-time. In the second 40 minutes captain Johnny Matthews, full-back Craig Gossman and Parker scored further tries with Parker adding a further two conversions.
Edinburgh Rugby man Sean Kennedy and young Andrew Mitchell scored for Hawick in the 26-12 loss.
Meanwhile, the winless season continued for Edinburgh Accies after a 31-23 home reverse to Stirling County.
Like in a number of previous outings in the season, Accies played a lot of entertaining rugby and scored three good tries, with their head coach Derek O’riordan saying: “I think the better team lost.”
County’s forwards stepped things up when they had to and their tries came from Andrew Goudie, a penalty try, Bruce Sorbie, Ali Mackie and Logan Trotter. For Accies, tries came from Robert Wilson, teenager Harry Paterson and Robbie Kent.