Edinburgh Accies v Melrose Rugby 15/3/25

Edinburgh Accies v Melrose – 15/3/25

Played on a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon this Arnold Clark Men’s Premiership match could, undoubtedly, be described as a match of two halves. Bruce Colvine fielded the kick off in his own 22 and called “Mark” only to be told by the referee that at this level of rugby that Law Variation did not apply. Cue panic as he was surrounded by Accies forwards who heard the same message. He hoofed the ball up-field only for it to be collected by Accies who raced down the left side with Cole Imrie scoring in the corner and Vincent Hart converting with only 41 seconds on the clock. At 5 minutes George Davis charged down a Melrose clearance and, showing his soccer skills, dribbled the ball over the line for a try converted by Hart. At nine minutes Accies won a scrum 5 on the right the ball passing through a series of plays to in front of the posts where Cam MacDonald got his hands on it and strode over for a try converted by Hart. 21 points down in 10 minutes suggested that Melrose were still sitting on the bus! However, two minutes later, Colvine timed his pass to Corey Goldsbrough who put Melrose on the scoreboard with an unconverted try to the right of the posts. At 21 minutes MacDonald completed a series of plays with the Accies bonus point try which Hart converted. On the half hour, after a penalty lineout on the left, a series of plays developed with Finlay Sinclair scoring at the posts and Keiran Clark adding the extras. Melrose then had a couple of near misses before Goldsbrough was sin-binned for failing to release a tackled player. Accies then stretched the Melrose defence with Tom Drennan scoring and Hart converting.

Half time – Edinburgh Accies 35 Melrose 12.

With three minutes of the second half played Morgan Gabe raced in to the left of the posts for an unconverted try. The Melrose bonus point try came at 64 minutes when, from a penalty lineout on the left, the rolling maul ended with Colvine scoring and Clark converting. With eleven minutes remaining George Ratcliff was yellow-carded, in the red zone, for blocking a Melrose player going for the score. Arguably, a penalty try should have been awarded, but it wasn’t. Melrose took a scrum for the penalty, won it, and spread the ball left to Connor Spence whose try was converted by Roly Brett. With the clock now almost in the red Melrose, again, took a scrum for the penalty on the right. The ball was moved wide to the left to Hamish Weir who defeated defenders to score in the left corner leaving Brett a difficult, but successful, conversion.

Edinburgh Accies 35 Melrose 38

Edinburgh Accies – Vincent Hart, Robbie Kent, Max Wallace, Neil Armstrong©, Fraser Lindsay, Struan Wells, Cameron MacDonald, Cole Imrie, Fraser McAslan, Paddy Hayes, Richard Thomson, Struan Whittaker, Tom Drennan, George Davis, Guy Napier. Replacements – George Shannon, George Ratcliff, Cameron Bain, Alistair Wood, Will Catterall, Ben Grainger, Connor Allan.

Melrose – Morgan Gabe, Connor Spence, Corey Goldsbrough, Roly Brett, Declan Mulkcahy, Keiran Clark, Bruce Colvine, Jack Dobie, Logan Kirk, Zen Szwagrzak, Mac Rutherford, Angus Runciman©, Will Ferrie, Jack Wilks, Elliot Ruthven. Replacements – Andrew Ceballos, Ben White, Robbie Robinson, Finlay Sinclair, Douglas Crawford, Evan Davies, Hamish Weir.

Referee – Jonny Periam