Sevens Diary 2005

Date

Tournament

The Draw for the Allied Irish Bank (UK) Gala 7's

Sunday 3rd April

Gala

1.30pm Watsonians V Kelso

Saturday 9th April

Melrose

1.48pm Peebles v Berwick

Saturday 16th April

Hawick

2.06pm Boroughmuir v Haddington

Sunday 17th April

Berwick

2.24pm Langholm v Gala

Saturday 23rd April

Langholm

2.42pm Melrose v Selkirk

Scottish Borders District Union 7s

3.00pm Jed-forest v Earlston

Sunday 24th April

Peebles

3.18pm Heriots v Stewart’s Melville

Sunday 1st May

Earlston

3.36pm Hawick v 1 Royal Scots

Saturday 7th May

Jed-Forest

Sevens Reports:

Gala 7's 2005

ALLIED IRISH BANK (UK) GALA 7’s 2005

After a week of poor weather forecasts for the weekend the sun broke through the mists mid morning and promised a good afternoon. Unfortunately this did not last beyond 4 o’clock but at least it stayed fair, if a bit cool, but this did not stop a good tournament, which included all 10 hosts of the “Kings of the Sevens” rounds.
The Gala squad for the day were Tom Weir, David Gray, Graeme Bryce, Tim Stuck, Andy McLean, Callum McCrae, Steve Craig, Willie Collins, Andrew Dall, Chris Lawson.

As we are only really interested in the Gala matches, here’s a brief summary:
The first round tie v Langholm saw us start off in our usual fashion by making it hard for ourselves and letting them back in to the game having gone two tries up from Steve Craig and David Gray, half time was 10-21. We eventually took charge with more tries from Steve and David (2 for his hat-trick) and one for Callum McCrae, but took our eye off the ball and allowed them a final score. Andy converted all but 2 to make final sore 38-17.

Our quarter final tie started badly with Tom Weir and Callum both missing the same player to set Boroughmuir free to the corner (5-0), then Steve got his 3rd of the day going in from their 22 (5-7), but at a cost with him pulling up hurt. Half time 5-7. Boroughmuir then had a penalty 15m out and broke through the first tackle to go in for their 2nd, 10-7. Then it was our turn again with a penalty 25m from their line which was taken and recycled for Callum to go in for another with Andy’s kick coming off the post, 10-12. It was then a nervous couple of minutes for the Gala support (and of course all other Borderers) but good pressure kept them pinned back and eventually knocked on under their posts for us to win the game.

The semi-final saw us start reasonably well with Graeme Bryce coming close before being pushed into touch, after which Watsonians scored at the other end, 7-0. Missed tackles in mid-field then let them in for another with good backing up, 14-0. Willie Collins then broke through a double tackle on their 10m line to set Graeme free before a pop up to Tim Stuck on the line for our first, 14-5 at halftime. The second half saw us claim back another couple of tries from Chris Lawson and Tom Weir, but they also got another to win it 19-15 and end our participation.

The final was played out between Watsonians and the Royal Scots as most had predicted, but with a one-sided score that probably no-one foresaw. With 3 Scotland Sevens Team members in their squad Watsonians managed to starve the Royal Scots of possession and take full control of the game to run out 49-5 winners. With our guys only going down 28-15 maybe we did not so bad after all.

This makes the Kings of the Sevens League very tight with only 2 points separating 1st and 5th, with ourselves sharing second place with both Jed and Selkirk behind the Royal Scots.

The full results were as follows:

First Round
Watsonians 28 v Kelso 7; Peebles 14 v Berwick 7; Boroughmuir 32 v Haddington 17;
Langholm 17 v Gala 38; Melrose 19 v Selkirk 24 (ET); Jed-Forest 29 v Earlston 5;
Heriots 17 v Stewarts Melville 33; Hawick 12 v Royal Scots 14.

Quarter Finals
Watsonians 35 v Peebles 0; Boroughmuir 10 v Gala 12; Selkirk 14 v Jed-Forest 0; Stewarts Melville 15 v Royal Scots 19.

Semi Finals
Watsonians 28 v Gala 15; Selkirk 17 v Royal Scots 19.

Final
Watsonians 49 v Royal Scots 5.

Kelso 7's

After a stuttering start to a first round tie in which the lead changed hands several times we went past Watsonians 27-14 with tries from G Bryce, J Berry, A McLean and a brace from C Lawson. In the quarter final we ran out eventual winners against Hawick 31-19 with further tries from G Bryce, J Berry, with A McLean supplying a brace, and a penalty try awarded for a deliberate knock-on. In the semi-final a strong Jed team won 24-12 with tries from C Dalgleish and J Berry for Gala. Jed went on to beat Melrose 33-19 in the final. Gala squad: J Dalziel (Capt.), P McDonald, G Bryce, J Berry, A McLean, G Dalgleish, C Dalgleish, C Lawson, K Gallagher, L Kibble.

Selkirk 7’s

After beating Hawick 2nds 22-5 in the first round we exited this year’s tournament in the second going down 19-0 to a spirited Selkirk side.
This leaves us in 4th place in the Kings of the sevens league 4 points behind Melrose in 1st place, with it all to play for in the Spring circuit starting with our own Gala 7’s on 3rd April.

Melrose 7s

Well, not really much to say about this one. Our first and only game was against Kelso who had already played against Hawick in the “preliminary round” (ie we invited too many for a normal tournament). Unfortunately through poor handling and other errors we ended up going down 24-10 to end our participation.

The only good news is that at least a Border club made it to the final for a change and after opening up what many called an unassailable lead of 24-0 Melrose were taken apart by defending champions Stellenbosch in the second half to lose the game 38-24.

Hawick 7s

Our first tie was the last of the first round against Currie which was hardly entertaining for anyone watching as we made it hard work for ourselves in the Mansfield Mudbaths, but we took the 19-0 win. This saw us through to play Melrose in the quarters where we lost the tie 14-12 mainly due to 3 breaks, 2 by Scott Nicholl and the other by Steve Craig, being unsupported with only 1 man to beat. The final was played without any Borders interest between Newcastle Falcons and the Royal Scots where Newcastle ran out 43-0 winners to go top of the table, with us in 6th.

Berwick 7s

The least said the better about this one. With us arriving as defending champions it turns out that the best we did was to deliver the cup back to the hosts in time for the presentation. The first round saw us unceremoniously dumped out with a 31-5 defeat by Peebles despite sending a reasonable squad down to Scremerston even with a 1st XV game on at Netherdale. If we don’t do very well at Langholm and Peebles next weekend then we are pretty much out of contention for the “Kings” title this year.

Langholm 7s / Peebles 7s

With not a lot to say on either of these here is a combined report for the weekend.

Saturday saw us make the trip to Langholm where we met Selkirk in the 6th tie of the first round. Unfortunately our stay was all too short going down 32-5 with Graeme Bryce getting our only score after the game was already lost. Newcastle Falcons lifted the cup beating the Royal Scots 33-12 in the final.

The second tournament of the weekend was a bit closer to home at Peebles, but no less embarrassing for it. The draw saw us up against Watsonians in the very first tie and with their 4 Scotland 7s superstars in the team they gave no quarter to set us aside by 38-0 on their way to the final where they beat Newcastle 21-5.