Good draw for Greenyards guests



Published Date: 25 March 2009
By STUART BATHGATE
BOTH of the visiting overseas teams in this year's Mathon Melrose Sevens have received what look like favourable draws.
Barrhaven Scottish, the club from Ottawa in Canada, have an opening match against Stirling County, while the University of Johannesburg from South Africa will meet Langholm.

The third guest team, Leeds Metropolitan University, will be up against
the newly-crowned club champions, Ayr. With fixtures still to be fulfilled in both league and cup, however, the strength of the squads entered by Scottish clubs remains to be seen.

The Leeds Metropolitan team is expected to include Fijian Waisale Serevi, who has recently been awarded an honourary sports doctorate and regularly takes an active role in the university's coaching structure.

As is customary, the visitors will not enter the competition until the second round. The home team have also been given a bye, and will await the winners of the first-round tie between West of Scotland and Hawick. With 20 clubs entered at the Greenyards, the four first-round ties are required to reduce the number of competitors to 16.

Last year's sevens, the 125th anniversary edition of the tournament, was won by the Scottish Thistles, as the Scotland sevens squad were called for the day. They defeated Leicester in the final. Neither team will compete this year, when the action begins at 12.45pm.

This article was originally posted on 25-Mar-2009, 15:47 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 25-Mar-2009, 15:48.