The Greenyards club followed up their fifth win at Hawick’s sevens on Saturday with their third at Berwick’s the day after to go 15 points clear at the top of the table with four rounds played and six left to go. Added to their 15th victory at Peebles Sevens back in August last year, kicking off 2025 with two ten-point hauls on the bounce takes them to 33 points, 15 more than joint runners-up Jed-Forest and Edinburgh Academical. Kelso are fourth on 15 points, with Peebles fifth on 14 and Gala, winners at their own sevens last August, joint-sixth with Durham University on ten. Hawick are eighth on eight, Watsonians ninth on six, Selkirk and Berwick joint-tenth on five and Boroughmuir 12th on three. Melrose beat Durham Uni 24-14 in Hawick’s final after wins by 24-7 against Selkirk in the last four, 28-7 versus Boroughmuir in the last eight and 31-7 over Berwick in round one. The English students made it to that final at Mansfield Park via wins by 36-24 against Accies in the semis, 29-14 versus Stirling County in the quarter-finals and 31-26 in the first round against Kelso. Jed and Peebles also made it to the last eight, losing 26-5 to Accies and 26-12 to Selkirk respectively. Hawick and Gala were among eight sides knocked out in round one, the former losing by 26-12 to Selkirk and the latter by 29-19 to Jed. Melrose were up against defending Kings of the 7s champions Kelso in Sunday’s final in Northumberland, getting the better of them by 19-12. Their route to Scremerston’s final consisted of pool wins by 55-0 against Jesmond Jackals and 43-12 versus Durham Uni and a 32-27 last-four knockout of Jed. Kelso got there by beating a president’s VII by 78-0 and Accies by 29-19 in their pool and Berwick by 27-5 in the semis. Jed made it to the last four by seeing off Selkirk by 29-10 and Watsonians by 43-20 in their pool and Berwick joined them there by virtue of pool victories by 22-17 versus Peebles and 24-15 against Gala. Melrose’s ten-strong Hawick Sevens-winning squad, captained by Hamish Weir, otherwise consisted of Corey Goldsbrough, Keiran Clark, Declan Mulcahy, Harry Makowski, Ruairidh Lindsay, Connor Spence, Scott Clark, Douglas Crawford and Roly Brett and they stuck with much the same line-up for the day after but expanded to 12, with Makowski dropping out and Chris Thomson, Callum Henderson and Paddy Anderson coming in. Weir was delighted to have skippered his side to wins at the double and is now targeting further succcess as the season reaches the halfway mark at Langholm this coming Saturday. Talking to Borders Rugby TV after Saturday’s victory, he said: “We’re ecstatic. It’s a huge tournament and we’re buzzing to come away with a win. “There were some great teams out there, so we’re really buzzing to have come out on top overall. “We knew Durham were going to be fit, physical and really good rugby-players so we sort of looked at ourselves. “We stick by our principles, work hard, retain the ball and we’ve got some great players. “We just showed a little bit of spirit, a little bit of team-bonding and we got there in the end. “It’s not an easy game – it’s pretty tiring out there a times – but that sort of brotherhood got us through.” Langholm’s sevens this weekend will be contested in three initial pools of three and one of four, followed by semi-finals and a final. Melrose, Hawick, Gala and Heriot’s make up the four-cornered pool, with Kelso, Peebles and Watsonians in one of the three-way groups; Selkirk, Berwick and Accies in another; and Jed, the hosts and Aspatria in the remaining one. Entry is £10 for adults, £5 for concessions and free for under-16s. For details, go to https://www.facebook.com/LangholmRFC