Melrose RFC

Melrose

Full name	Melrose Rugby Football Club
Founded	1877
Location	Melrose, Scotland
Ground(s)	The Greenyards
President	Mike Dalgetty
Coach(es)	Craig Chalmers and John Dazeil
League(s)	Premiership Division One
Team kit 2nd kit

Melrose Rugby Football Club, located in the town of Melrose in the Scottish Borders, is one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world.

History

The club was formed in 1877 and was elected to full membership of the Scottish Rugby Union in 1880.^[1] The club have played at the Greenyards since the club's inception.^[1]

Melrose have won the Scottish 1st Division title 6 times (1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997). Melrose won the Scottish cup in 2008 and were runners up in 2009 and 2010 and are currently in the 2011 final.

Despite the population of Melrose hovering around 3,500 for a number of years the team has been a consistently successful club in the upper echelons of the Scottish game.^[1]

Sevens tournament

Main article: Melrose Sevens

Melrose is most famous as the host of the first-ever rugby sevens tournament in 1883, the abbreviated game having been invented by Ned Haig, a local butcher. The first Melrose Sevens was won by Melrose, beating local rivals Gala in the final during extra time. The Melrose Sevens, played on the second Saturday in April every year, remains the most popular Scottish Sevens tournament, regularly attracting crowds in excess of 10,000. In honour of the role of Melrose RFC in the creation of rugby sevens, the club was inducted along with Haig to the IRB Hall of Fame in 2008.^[2] Melrose have had a bit of recent success in their home tournament coming runner-up on a couple of occasions in the past five years, they won peebles 7s 2009. In 2010 they were crowned Kings of the Sevens winning the Kelso, Earlston, Gala and Jedforest sevens and placing respectably in the others.

Notable players

Melrose has provided 22 Scotland internationals including

• Craig Chalmers (60 caps)
• Keith Robertson (44 caps).
• Alex Hastie
• Charlie Laidlaw
• Frank Laidlaw
• Doddie Weir
• Craig Joiner
• Jock Allan
• Doug Davies
• George Dobson
• Frank Laidlaw (32 caps)^[3]
• Kelly Brown

Jim Telfer is another famous player who went on to become one of the most successful coaches of the Scotland national rugby union team, as well as receiving 25 international caps himself.^[3] He was also appointed Director of Rugby of the Scottish Rugby Union.

Representative players

To date: 2010

Borders under 16s: Sam Chalmers

                  Blair Hutchison
                  Campbell Donaldson
                  David Colvine
                  Martin Dodds
                  Cameron Pate
                  Mickael Rogerson
                  Jack Chambers

Borders under 18s: Callum Wilde

                  Gavin Robertson
                  Ian Robertson
                  Mark Stewart

Scotland Under 18s: Gavin Robertson

Scotland Under 19s: Craig Jackson

                   Richard Ferguson

Scotland under 20s: Lindsey Gibson

Scotland club International:

                            Scott Wight
                            Fraser Thompson
                            James King
                            Calum Anderson
                            John Dalziel

Scotland 7s: Craig Jackson

Youth rugby

There is an under 18s team called Melrose Wasps, coached by the famous Jim Telfer and David Sheil. Over the last couple of years this team as become more competitive in the local borders league they play in coming 2nd in 2009 behind Hawick Wands in 2009, with good players such as Grant Runciman, Richard Ferguson, Bruce Colvine and a lot more. That year they were very successful in the 7s circuit winning the kings of the 7s. Melrose rugby club also have an under 16s, 15s, S2s, S1s, and then all primary ages groups however only start playing matches at primary 4.

See also

• Melrose, Scotland
• Scottish Premiership Division One
• Border League
• Borders Sevens Circuit

External links

• Official site
• Melrose Sevens

References

• Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3)

1. ^ ^{a b c} Bath, p91
2. ^ "IRB Hall of Fame Welcomes Five Inductees". International Rugby Board. 2008-11-23. http://www.irb.com/history/halloffame/newsid=2027752.html#irb+hall+fame+welcomes+five+inductees. Retrieved 2008-11-23. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Encyclopedia of Rugby Union Football, p92