Melrose Rugby Bulletin - 27/8/26
Hope everyone is having a good week & enjoyed last weekend's rugby. It was a really positive pre-season start with all teams winning their matches! We had some new players on the pitch as well as some returning faces - welcome to you, we're delighted to have you & wish you and all the players a great season ahead! You can read Iain's match reports from Saturday's game against Selkirk, our friendly in Ilkley & Peebles 7s below:
Coaching Appointments
We're delighted to be able to let you all know, that the coaching vacancies that came up after Chegg's departure have been filled! Director of Rugby, Jerry Brett & his team have spent a considerable amount of time establishing what we need and who can provide it. In the end, they concluded that we had the best candidates for the positions already in our ranks. Interim Head Coach, Callum Anderson is no longer interim! He will now be known as 'Head Coach Callum Anderson'! Congratulations
Cal and all the very best in your new role!
We have also appointed our new Head of Youth Rugby, any of you that have been in the office this last week, may have noticed someone new! Again, the right person was found among our cohort - Craig Greer has also disposed of his 'interim' title and has hit the ground running & stepped seamlessly into his new role! Welcome Craig, it's great to have you on board!
Coaches Cal & Craig
This week's Rugby
We are finally back to competitive rugby this weekend as the Premiership opens for the 26/27 Season! It feels like a LONG time since our last competitive 15s game! The 1XV are heading West to Braidholm and GHA, they've been training hard and are feeling good! If you're heading through, you'll notice a 'new look' for Melrose who will be introducing their Melrose 150 Away strip!! It's pretty eye catching!!
GHA are also hosting a Beer Festival on Saturday, they've very kindly given Melrose travelling supporters a discount code to pre-buy your tickets. The code to enter for the discount is: GBFMELROSE
A note from the team at GHA about access on Saturday:
We appreciate that not all travelling fans will wish to take part in the beer festival, so the code will also bring the pricing more in line with our standard match day ticketing and allow everyone to enjoy the day.
A little extra info for your members:
The ground is easily accessible for wheelchairs and prams.
Apologies but we cannot allow dogs to attend on this date, other than assistance dogs. We will need to turn away anyone with a dog.
Alcohol will not be allowed into the venue and bag searches will be in operation.
We encourage attendees to bring card for payment, as most of our vendors will be working with contactless card machines.
We will have a strong Challenge 25 policy in operation so please remind all attendees, especially younger players, to bring their ID with them.
The clubhouse will remain closed to the public during the event, other than for accessible toilet facilities and baby changing, but will be open to your team and officials pre and post-match for access to changing rooms and post-match catering.
Melrose Rugby Continued!
The Storm don't have a game this week, their opener is here on the 5th against GHK, followed by the 1XV taking on Glasgow Hawks.
The U18s head down the road to Hawick this Saturday and the U16s are home to Gala.
🏉Melrose 7s Open Community Meeting - THIS Monday @ 6PM🏉
We will be hosting an open-to-all meeting to share some of our plans for the 2027 Melrose Sevens on Monday 31st August, from 6pm until 7pm, in the Clubrooms at the Greenyards.
You don't need to be a member of the club to attend, everyone is welcome!
This is a great opportunity to hear more about our plans, ask questions, and find out how you can get involved in making the 2027 Melrose Sevens another fantastic community event.
We hope to see you there!
Player News...
Exciting times for some former Melrose players coming up! Emily Love (former player & Melrose Ambassador) has been named to the Scotland A team who are taking on the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Saturday. If you're looking for some Friday night rugby, then look no further than Kingston Park where the Newcastle Redbulls take on the Doncaster Knights at 7:45pm - Allan Ferrie pulls on the number 8 jersey for his first run out for the Bulls. Former player Aidan Cross plays for Doncaster - can't find a team sheet for them, but hopefully Aidan is travelling up to Newcastle for the game! Fantastic to see Melrose players progressing their careers in the game !
Photo copyright: Scottish Rugby, Newcastle Redbulls, Doncaster Knights
26/27 SEASON MEMBERSHIP NOW AVAILABLE
This season's membership is now available to purchase online. If you requested a card pick-up they will be available from the office from Monday or on the gate at the GHK game on September 5th. Please don't come in to do membership tomorrow, Friday the 28th as I'm not going to be here!!
Guinness Six Nations 2027 Tickets
We still have no firm news on when the Guinness Six Nations tickets will be released, but have a hint on it being in the next week or so. This is a membership benefit, so please do purchase your membership asap, as only active members will get the email re tickets.
Melrose Rugby 150 Retro Jersey Pre-order
If you're looking to get hold of a retro shirt, make sure to get your pre-order in by the end of the month - if you are wondering about sizing there is a size chart on BE's website. You can order the yellow & black or the purple, yellow & black in both a long and short sleeve style!
Club News
Many of you were in attendance last Wednesday night at the AGM - a good meeting with lots of info shared. Our board was voted on and we now have 9 members - we also appointed 2 new Honorary Presidents, namely former President Grant Hogg and ex-Melrose/Scotland Player Keith Robertson (Painter & groundsman extraordinaire!) - congratulations to them both - very much deserved. To see who our directors are and what they look like....CLICK HERE
I'll leave it there for tonight - you've certainly got a lot to digest!
Go well boys on Saturday!
Warm wishes
Hilary