Arnold Clark Men's Premiership: Melrose sign off with a win as Musselburgh go down fighting
03/29/2025 02:15 PM
Melrose 50
Musselburgh 28
ALASDAIR REID @ The Greenyards
SPRING may have sprung but its presence was not particularly obvious on a bitterly cold and blustery afternoon at The Greenyards. Nor could it be said that either side seemed particularly full of the joys of this supposedly joyful season as they closed out their Arnold Clark Premiership campaigns in a dead-rubber contest from which neither had anything to gain.
In better conditions, and with no jeopardy whatsoever, they might have been tempted to put on a show for the crowd. And in fairness, there was no shortage of effort on display. But champagne rugby was never on the cards as the wind howled and squalls of rain swept across the pitch.
At the finish, Melrose had the comfortable win they probably expected, while relegation-bound Musselburgh could draw pride from a strong finish that saw them pick up a bonus point. For departing coach Derek O'Riordan, it was a small comfort at the end of a frustrating season.
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"It was nice to get that at the end," O'Riordan said. "It's just a sign of the league as it is that you get a four-try bonus but still lose by more than 20 points. It was nice to finish on top and show some resolve."
Melrose's Scott Wight was philosophical about his side's lumpy display. "It kind of reflected our season," he said. "When we're good we're good and when we're bad we're bad. Realistically, we are all three, four, five years behind Ayr and Heriot's at the moment. There is a big gulf in the league, but it's up to clubs like us to get that right and close the gap."
Musselburgh had the advantage of that strong wind at their backs in the first half. Not that the element of advantage was particularly clear when a raking kick from deep in the opening minute flew the length of the pitch and trickled over the Melrose dead-ball line to give the Borders an attacking scrum deep in their visitors’ territory.
Nothing came from that position, but it wasn't long before Melrose started to live up to their billing as hot favourites. They spent the next 10 minutes hammering away at the Musselburgh line and got their deserved reward when scrum-half Doug Crawford broke through to collect their first try.
If Musselburgh's defence had been impressive up to that point, it was all but invisible in the minutes that followed. Two minutes after Crawdford's try, they had another in the bag when Bruce Colvine tumbled over near the posts. Another three minutes later and the third score was delivered wide on the right by winger Connor Spence.
Harri Morris, the Edinburgh hooker who had been released to Melrose, added professional bulk and power to the Greenyards outfit's early efforts, but he was a little too eager in trying to repel Musselburgh's first serious attack and was sent to the sin-bin, albeit paying the price as much for his colleagues' earlier misdemeanours as his own. With a man advantage, the East Lothian side finally had cause for hope, and they cashed in that optimism by sending lock Ross Brown over for a try in the 20th minute.
Melrose still had most of the play, but the score energised Musselburgh and the second quarter was a far more competitive affair than the first had been. Too competitive, at one point, for although next to nothing was at stake, the two packs still found cause to involve themselves in an almighty brawl. When it finally broke up, referee Chelsea Gillespie, who showed impressively calm authority throughout, gave the two captains a stern warning and then backed it up with yellow-cards for the main protagonists, Melrose's Mac Rutherford and Musselburgh's Euan Bonthron.
Melrose took their lead out to 24-7 before half-time thanks to a try by David Crawford three minutes before the break. There was an impression they had rather lost their way since their early scoring onslaught, but from the start of the second period it was clear that they intended to take a tighter grip on proceedings.
Two minutes after the restart, Melrose collected their fifth try when Spence squeezed over in the right corner. And just as it seemed they had stepped up a gear, Musselburgh seemed to drop a cog or two. The visitors had some lusty and boisterous support from the Greenyards stand, but it would be pushing it to say they answered their fans' exhortations.
Melrose pretty much killed the contest off in the 53rd minute. Doug and David Crawford may not be related, but they were very much on the same page when the former broke from a scrum near the Musselburgh 22 and found the latter blasting through unchallenged for yet another try.
Musselburgh did manage to pick up a second consolation score when Sandy Watt went over from short range in the 64th minute. But it spoke volumes for the overall pattern of the game at that point that the winger's score was sandwiched by a brace from Melrose's Morris. Such was Melrose's domination that Morris was increasingly seen in the wide open spaces, where he showed a decent turn of pace to add to his strength in the tight.
Kieran Clark's sublime conversion of Morris's second score took Melrose's total up to the half-century mark. However, in their last, defiant act as a Premiership side, Musselburgh clawed their way back to collect the two tries, from Charlie McLean and Bonthron, that earned them a bonus point. It helped that Melrose were reduced to 13 men by two more yellow cards, but no one could begrudge the Stoneyfield side that consolation.
Teams –
Melrose: M Gabe; C Spence, D Mulcahy, E Davies, K Clark; R Brett, Doug Crawford; J Dobie, H Morris, Z Swarzagak, M Rutherford, A Runciman ©, B White, B Colvine, W Ferrie. Subs: L Kirk, A Kirk, A Weir, David Crawford, C Robertson, L Townsend, H Weir.
Musselburgh: P Burns; M McCowan, R Smith, R Watt ©, S Watt; B Weatherhead, J Rule; E Bonthron, B Stott, H Maeadows, J Haynes, R Brown, J Arnold, J Talac, J Longwell. Subs: Z Griffith, M Thomas, C McLean, S Talac, O Craig, F Craig, L Brook.
Referee: C Gillespie
Scorers –
Melrose: Tries: Doug Crawford, Colvine, Spence 2 David Crawford 2, Morris 2; Cons: Clark 5
Musselburgh: Tries: Brown, S Watt, McLean, Bonthron; Cons: Weatherhead 2, Burns 2
Scoring Sequence (Melrose first): 5-0; 10-0; 12-0; 17-0; 17-5; 17-7; 22-7; 24-7 (h-t) 29-7; 34-7; 36-7; 41-7; 43–7; 43-12; 43-14; 48-14; 50-14; 50-21; 50-28
Yellow cards –
Melrose: Morris (20 mins), Rutherford (35 mins), A Weir (75 mins), White (77 mins)
Musselburgh: Bonthron (35 mins)
Man-of-the-Match:Harri Morris has struggled to get game time in an Edinburgh squad that is not exactly short of good hookers. Here, though, his quality was obvious, with fitness, strength and a decent turn of pace for good measure. His two tries were only the icing on a superb all-round performance.
Talking point: The demise of Super6 was always going to produce some mismatches. This was far from the worst the season has produced, but Melrose, a team well south of the play-off zone, found it all too easy to run up 50 points. It will take time to close the gap between the Premiership’s haves and have-nots, but next season's reduction in the number of teams involved should at least help the process on its way.
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