Saracens the stars as Brown goes back to Greenyards
Published on 14 April 2012

Alan Lorimer

A remarkable 129 years on from its inception, the Melrose Sevens remains one of the more attractive events on the sporting calendar and this year's tournament at the famous Greenyards ground in the Borders town today will maintain the appeal and popularity of competitions past, despite the withdrawal of the star attraction, Bay of Plenty.

The loss of the New Zealand club has created an opportunity for England's Aviva Premiership champions, Saracens, to take centre stage. They, along with London Scottish, Hong Kong Scottish and Singapore form the quartet of guest sides against whom Scottish club sides can measure their skills.

Saracens and Melrose have a strong link in Kelly Brown, the Scotland flanker who was Andy Robinson's first choice to lead the national side before injury ruled him out of the RBS 6 Nations. Brown, who is still recovering, will today manage a Saracens team packed with strength and pace. "All but one of the squad have played in the Aviva Premiership this season," said their spokesman, Matt Howard, by way of quality assurance. Their squad includes England Sevens cap Nils Mordt, the Fijian Kameli Ratuvou, the experienced Joe Maddock, who spent seven years at Bath, and the talented England under-20 player, Ben Ransom.

Saracens will take on the winners of a first-round tie between Langholm and Heriot's in the final match of the second round. Heriot's came desperately close to winning at Gala last weekend and will certainly not go in as underdogs against the guest side.

Also challenging for the famous Ladies Cup will be London Scottish, whose line-up lists the former Melrose and Edinburgh winger Mark Robertson, fresh from HSBC World Series action with Scotland in Hong Kong and Tokyo. Scottish have also named Robertson's Scotland Sevens team-mate, Mike Fedo, and Craig Jackson, cousin of international stand-off Ruaridh Jackson and a Scotland under-20 cap last season, as well as a member of the winning Melrose side last year.

The Melrose event is the second tournament in the Kings of the Sevens competition, which began last week at Netherdale. Melrose are the champions but, if they are to retain their overall crown and win their own tournament, they must improve on their showing last weekend. However, having recovered from their XV-a-side efforts for the season and with massive home support in the anticipated crowd of more than 10,000, they could again prove that they are not just the progenitors of the sevens game, but current masters, into the bargain.

This article was posted on 14-Apr-2012, 06:36 by Hugh Barrow.