- Struggling for rhythm in the first half against Hawks, Melrose dug in to work their way imperiously through their difficulty. Good players and plenty of them; well organised; scoring tries for fun; great stuff – but can they do it in the wind and the rain?
- After their set-back at Myreside last week, Stirling County got the show right back on the road in robust style against Boroughmuir. “They played to their strengths; they scrummed to get penalties; and they mauled to get tries,” according to Peter Wright –and they defended pretty aggressively as well.
- Currie Chieftains were caught cold by Ayr and Jamie Forbes had lost his kicking boots. Disappointment – but nihil desperandum – it was three tries apiece and they won the second half 15-0.
- Hampered by injuries and badly hurt by a costly yellow card, Glasgow Hawks gave it their best shot at the Greenyards – but even with four pros on board, they simply did not have the firepower to spike Melrose’s heavy guns.
- Good players do not become bad players – and it was a raging bull rather than wounded buffalo that hit the park for Ayr at Malleny on Saturday. It would take a brave man now to bet against them being in the mix come the end of the season.
- Heriots were impressive against Hawick – good shape, hard running, really sharp hands – but in truth, they were playing unopposed rugby.
- Did Watsonians bottle it at Marr – or are Marr actually better than everybody thinks?
- Boroughmuir’s set-piece was a big problem against Stirling – and there were still too many careless mistakes. Another injury to Chris Laidlaw did not help – but could they be losing sight of the bigger picture by channelling too much of their enthusiasm into exploiting the undoubted talents of their strike runners? It may indeed be a learning process – but, prosaically, next weeks game against Marr looks like one they cannot afford to lose.