“We never seem to start well, but we’ve challenged the boys to graft away and I think it is the first time we have gone back-to-back wins this season, so it is quite nice to grind out that result at home over Selkirk last week and then back it up here,” said Wight afterwards. “We’ve said that if we want to be a top four team then we have to start building now for next season.

“We stuck to the task really well, grafted away really well, and we chucked Paddy Anderson who has played 14 games this season on the wing into the second-row and he really revelled in the nitty-gritty, so that really sums up what we want this squad to be about.”

“Our line-out struggled early on but we made a few tweaks and it got better. I thought the forwards were excellent – scrum-wise, set-piece, maul-time – and if you get the upper-hand up-front it makes the game that wee bit easier. We also kicked tactically pretty well, getting the ball in behind them and making them play out, so all in all it was a pretty pleasing afternoon.”

Meanwhile, Watsonians head coach Davey Wilson was frustrated that his team failed to back up their strong performance to get the better of Currie Chieftains last week with another 80 minutes here, and readily agreed that it really came down to which team wanted it more.

“In the first half, we had so many opportunities to put ourselves well ahead but we forced offloads and made mistakes, then coming out in the second half we just didn’t show up,” he said. “Losing Luis Ball to injury early on in the second half took away an important source of physicality, but it is sill disappointing that we just didn’t look like we wanted to fight hard enough to get back into the game.

“I thought tactically as well, we kicked away ball that we didn’t need to kick away. I thought we looked better when we moved the ball. I thought young Luca Anderson showed up well at 12, but it is disappointing that some of our senior players didn’t step up. It was one of those afternoons … Melrose came out and wanted to go at it and we didn’t match that.”

Watsonians raced into the lead with only 48 seconds on the clock, thanks to winger Andy McLean athletically reclaiming his team’s kick-off, and No 8 Stuart Allison carrying on from where he left off last week by bursting through midfield on a well-time tip-pass a few phases later, then galloping past the final defender to touch down under the posts for an easily converted – by McLean – try.

And Allison was at it again 15 minutes later when he burst from the back of a line-out maul just outside Melrose’s 22 to set in motion a passage of play which ended with tight-head prop Harris McRobbie bundling over from close range, setting up another straight-forward conversion for McLean.

It was all Watsonians during the first quarter, but Melrose finally managed to build up a head of steam just before the half hour mark, and after several sharp phases inside the home 22, scrum-half Doug Crawford sensed a gap on the edge of a ruck and sniped through for his team’s opening points.

Alexander Ramage‘s conversion made it 14-7, and that’s the way it stayed until half-time, with Dom Coetzer being squeezed into touch as he dived for the corner for what would have been Watsonians’ third score of the afternoon just before the break.

Melrose were the quicker out the blocks in the second half, and they tied the contest six minutes after the restart through fresh off the bench Angus Weir, with Doug Crawford pulling the strings, and Ramage again converting

And the Borderers struck again in quick order, with Weir looking odds-on to double his account when chasing down a kick into the space almost straight from the restart, but the bounce did not go his way and instead it was Sam Derrick who picked up and flopped over.

The visitors’ bonus point came on 62 minutes off a solid scrum platform, with Morgan Gabe collecting his chip over the top to score just to the left of the posts, and although Watsonians finally managed to manufacture an overlap on the left for Max Garry to scurry over with six minutes to go, it was too little and too late.

McClean’s touchline conversion came back off the crossbar meaning there wasn’t even the consolation of a losing bonus-point for the hosts.

 

Teams –

Watsonians: D Coetzer; A McLean, R Kerr, L Anderson, L Macpherson (M Garry 55); C Bell, B Young (M Scott 55); D Voas (J Robert 60), B Cooper, H McRobbie (C Lamberton 55), L Ball (C Davidson 31), K van Niekirk, F Stewart, A Steven, A Allison (T Gray 74). Subs: , C Murphy

Melrose: M Gabe; C Robbie, Donald Crawford, Z Ramage, D Mulcahy (C Spence. 65); L Clark, Doug Crawford; J Dobie (R Robinson 65), S Rainey, A Arkley (Z Szwagrzak 41), T Brown (A Wei  41), A Runciman, W Ferrie (G Lindsay 74), P Anderson, S Derrick. Referee: David Young

 

Scorers –

Watsonians: Tries: Allison, McRobbie, Garry; Con: McLean 2.

Melrose: Tries: Doug Crawford, Weir, Derrick, Gabe; Cons: Ramage 4.

Scoring sequence (Watsonians): 5-0; 7-0; 12-0; 14-0; 14-5; 14-7 (h-t) 14-12; 14-14; 14-19; 14-21; 14; 26; 14-28; 19-28.

 

Player-of-the-Match: Doug Crawford offered a spark from scrum-half and tormented Watsonians with some of his kicks in behind, but this was a game won by the hard-working visiting pack. Patrick Anderson deserves a special mention for swapping his usual No 14 jersey for No 7 and revelling in the tight exchanges as part of a highly-effective back-row unit, but the leadership and unglamorous work-rate of second-row and captain Angus Runciman means he gets the tip of the hat.

Talking point: Watsonians are missing a number of Scotland Under-20s players who have been key performers this season, and the loss of the ultra-physical Louis Ball to injury early in the second half was a setback, but it is still hard to fathom how they managed to beat Currie Chieftains last week then start so well this week, only to end up taking nothing from this home game against a Melrose team they have beaten twice already this season. That’s not to take anything away from Melrose, who showed admirable doggedness and played smart.