Langholm Sevens
GALA recaptured the Edinburgh Woollen Mills Langholm Sevens Cup after a four-year interval by beating Melrose by no less than 63-7 in a remarkable final.
On a very warm day the Netherdale team should have been the more drained by the last lap. They had hard quarter and semi-final ties against Peebles (29-12) and Hawick, the early favourites, where significantly Gala shut off supply to Keith Davidson and Keith Suddon, to win 24-19.
Melrose slipped more easily past Langholm and Selkirk after an early fright from Glasgow Hawks.
On a day when Boroughmuir were unable to field a team, it was good to see some of Hawks promising youngsters in action.
Gala got an early score in the final from Sinclair Paterson, added to by David Gray before Bruce Ruthven pulled one back for Melrose.
However, the expected drama failed to unfold. Tries from Wilson Young, Gray, Gareth Brown and Brian Swan gave Gala a 34-7 lead at the pause. Tries from Young (2), Greg Brown (2) and Gareth Brown completed the Rose humiliation.
Gala - Crooks, Gareth Brown, Chatfield, Paterson, Swan, Gray, Young. Replacements - Bell for Crooks, Greg Brown for Bell.
Melrose - Clark, Graham, Laurie, Shiel, Ruthven, Brown, Dalgleish. Replacement - McGarva for Brown.
Results:
First round - Jed-Forest 36, Kelso 0; Hawick 33, Kirkcaldy 7; Peebles 38, West of Scotland 19; Gala 39, Stirling County 5; Langholm 43, Biggar 12; Melrose 33, Glasgow Hawks 26; Selkirk 31, Presidents VII 17; Watsonians 43, Stewartry 12.
Round 2 - Hawick 48, Jed-Forest 12; Gala 29, Peebles 12; Melrose 31, Langholm 17; Selkirk 17, Watsonians 10.
Semi-finals - Gala 24, Hawick 19; Melrose 39, Selkirk 7.
Final - Gala 63, Melrose 7.
qA SQUAD led by Scott Hastings and competing under the banner of Rugby Ecosse failed miserably in the Air France International Sevens tournament in Paris after beating Ivory Coast on Saturday.
To qualify for yesterday's knock-out stage, they needed to beat Argentina, but instead gifted them a try from the kick-off and lost their shape entirely.
West of Scotland's Aaron Collins hit back with a try, but Argentina exploited the Scots' disorganisation to rattle in five tries before Mark Moncrieff and Martin Waite had Argentina pressing the panic button, but there was insufficient time to repair all the earlier damage.
The Scots then lost in the first round of the plate when South American Barbarians scored six tries to the Scots' one.
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