Heriots 11 Melrose 18

Heriots raced into an early lead in this BT Premiership match against a Melrose team which had to re-jig its pack just before the match. Anders Monro kicked an early penalty, and this was followed, at 10 minutes, by a fine try by Andy Wilson to give the home team an 8 point lead. A quarter of an hour later Heriots failed to clear a high ball. Stuart MacMillan hacked on before retrieving the ball and passing it to Geoff Cladwell who outpaced the opposition to score a try. Scott Ruthven's attempted conversion rebounded off the post, but he did kick a penalty five minutes later to level the scores. Monro's second penalty returned the lead to Heriots just before the interval.
Half time - Heriots 11 Melrose 8.
Reduced to 14 men early in the second half when Wayne Mitchell was "sin-binned" the Melrose defense dug in and held out, and on Mitchell's return to the fray the visitors began to look more dangerous. Ruthven's second penalty, at 60 minutes, levelled the score again. Heriots, near the end, had Jamie Osbourne "sin-binned" and during this spell, at 79 minutes, Kelly Brown scooped up a ball at the base of the scrum and dived over for a try converted by Ruthven to give the visitors a welcome victory, and to lower Heriots' colours for the first time this campaign.
Heriots 11 Melrose 18