In glorious conditions at the Greenyards, thousands spent the weekend celebrating the greatness of the shortened form of Rugby Union. Overall there was a much stronger showing from Scottish teams than in recent years (other than the team of ringers brought in to win it last year), with a few reasonably well-kent names such as Ben Addison, Chris Fusaro and Jim Thompson popping up for their clubs and most of the invited overseas sides going out early. Host side Melrose progressed to the final but as usual the tournament was won by a bunch of students from South Africa who though everything was awesome and talked about God a lot. The vets tournament was won by a motely crew of ex-Border Reivers.
As one legend of the game – possibly the only legend of sevens, but what a legend – in Waisale Serevi retired, having finally played at the ground where the short game was invented, another bright young star was unearthed in the lightning quick feet of South African Earl Lewis. Melrose put up a fight in the brilliant final, clawing almost every score level thanks to some canny (and some Australian) operators – there was no shortage of class on both sides. In the end though, it was Lewis’s pace that proved the difference, able to kill off the game in the dying moments with a couple of individual sprints over the line.
