Melrose Sevens: Edinburgh Accies and Jamie Sole targeting more silverware

Jamie Sole and Edinburgh Accies are looking forward to the Melrose Sevens. Pic: SNS

The Raeburn Place men won their first ever Kings of the Sevens tournament title six days ago when they defeated Watsonians in the final to be crowned Gala Sevens champions.

It leaves them joint top of the Kings of the Sevens table after two of the 10 events and they will be joined in the Melrose Sevens draw by a number of other Capital clubs tomorrow.

Accies, Watsonians, Heriot’s, Boroughmuir, Currie Chieftains and Edinburgh University will all be at the Greenyards playing in the 24-team showpiece event.

Sole’s side take on Ayr in round one and the forward said: “Last week’s win at Gala was great and it showed the guys what we are capable of.

“Thanks to the influence of coach Graham Bonner and the help of Mark Appleson we take sevens very seriously at the club and to eventually get over the line last week was special for Graham in particular.

“He has really driven our sevens programme in recent years and I think we are becoming a better sevens team now.

“It is the way of the sport of sevens that you can never look past your next game because things change so quickly.

“As a result the only thing on our minds is the Ayr tie and then going from there, but there is no doubt that playing at Melrose gives everyone a buzz.”

Watsonians won the trophy 12 months ago and they enter the draw at the second round stage tomorrow against either Currie or Glasgow Hawks.

Their winger Scott McKean said: “The squad are all looking forward to heading back to Melrose, but we know it will be tough to retain the trophy with a strong looking field and the likes of London Scottish coming up for it.

“However, we reached the final of the Gala Sevens last weekend and we have had five or six guys coming back from playing for invitational teams at the Hong Kong 10s so training has been good this week and competition for places in the squad is fierce.

“We will do what we always do, concentrate on the first tie and then build from there – the Melrose Sevens is certainly a special day in the calendar.”

The first tie is at 11.30am with Heriot’s first on against Peebles.