Melrose 51

Boroughmuir 15

Atholl Innes at The Greenyards

MELROSE plundered nine tries against Boroughmuir on Saturday at The Greenyards on a day when lock Lewis Carmichael swapped his regular home jersey for one of Boroughmuir – but could not stop a rampant home side.

Carmichael, now with Edinburgh, is part of the pro-draft to clubs, but, with due to respect to Boroughmuir, who also fielded Sam Chalmers.

One has to wonder why a Melrose faithful servant was not allocated to his own club.

Coach Rob Chrystie praised the performance of Carmichael, who had spent almost five years at Melrose.

“It is hard for a player who has been at the club and then change his loyalties. He is a real professional in everything he does and to me he was absolutely outstanding,” he said.

“I hope that he will get a chance with Edinburgh.”

Carmichael received a yellow card for a high tackle and scored a late try, but he as well as Sean Kennedy added experience to the side.

But on this form Melrose will prove difficult to beat this season.

The hosts followed up their 11 tries the previous week against Watsonians by swamping Boroughmuir in the second half.

“We got there in the end, but it was not very pretty in the first half as Boroughmuir defended well,” Chrystie said.

“We were much more accurate after the break and we can definitely score.”

Conditions were ideal for running rugby, but Chrystie added: “I would like to think that we can play in all conditions.”

Peter Wright, the Boroughmuir coach, whose side trailed only 3-10 at the break, added: “We played really well in the first half and we still have injured players to come back, but Melrose are so clinical.

"We made mistakes and they cashed in. It is totally frustrating.”

There was no indication what was to follow when tries from Ross McCann and Fraser Thomson with Carmichael in the sin-bin put Melrose in the driving seat, and Ciaran Whyte replied with a penalty.

Sam Pecqueur and Dan Marek exchanged tries after the break before Melrose ran riot, with Pecqueur completing a hat-trick and Thomson a double.

Replacement Bruce Colvine scored another two as well as Grant Runciman touching down, and Craig Jackson converting three.

Carmichael scored a consolation try and Whyte converted for the visitors.

Melrose: F. Thomson; R. McCann, N. Godsmark, C. Jackson, S. Pecqueur; J. Baggott, M. McAndrew; G. Shiells, R. Anderson, N. Beavon, A. Runciman, I. Moody, N. Irvine-Hess, G. Runciman, A. Miller. Replacements: R. Ferguson, R. McLeod, R. Knott, B. Colvine, J. Johnstone.