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South Africa’s oldest rugby club, Hamilton, were the deserved victors at the 127th Melrose Sevens on Saturday. As expected the invited teams dominated proceedings, with Hamilton beating last year’s winners the University of Johannesburg 35-26 in an all-African final.

A Rory Hutton inspired Heriots FP proved the best of the Scottish sides on display making use of a kind draw to reach the last four with another invited side, The Army of Scotland, also making the semi-finals.

In a seesaw finale, the 10,000 strong crowd were treated to a high quality match with exciting runners packed on both the Hamilton and Jo’burg sides.

The students raced into 14 point early on with the Lola Waka and Derick Badenhorst going over. Hamilton’s Gerhard Vos showed his power to get his side on the board and then the day’s outstanding player Alshaun Bock levelled things up with a scything line.

Earl Lewis’ breathtaking run set up Waka to restore’s Johannesburg lead heading into half-time but again Hamilton showed their class with Du Plessis setting up Bock for his second to make it 21-21.

Lewis again proved the catalyst for the students, offloading beautifully for Waka’s hat-trick, with the defending champions looking strong. But Hamilton held their nerve and took their chances. Simple numbers gave Voss a try that was crucially converted by Bock to make it 28-26, with Eric Van Vuuren late score sealing the win for the Cape Town outfit.

Hamilton had been outstanding in their 35-5 semi-final win over the clearly fatigued Army. Jacobs, Roussouw, Du Plessis, Vos, Williams all crossing in a one-sided game.

An early Graham Wilson try gave Heriots hope in their semi-final against the Johannesburg students but were undone by a more clinical and drilled outfit, with scores from Swanepoel, Badenhorst, and De Klerk. 

Hosts Melrose were controversially denied a last-gasp try against Hamilton in a pulsating quarter-final, losing 14-17 to leave coach Craig Chalmers seething. Cambridge Uni, who finished runners-up at last weekend’s Casablanca University Sevens, were knocked out in the second round by Heriots.

University of Johannesburg: K. Jacobs, E. Marutilulle, J. Swanepoel, L. Waka, D. Badenhorst, J. P Rensberg, E. Tonder, A. McDonal, C. De Klerk, E. Lewis.
Hamilton: A. Bock, J. Du Plessis, J. Rossouw, T. Jacobs, J. de Villiers, E. Van Vuuren, J. Williams, S. Du Toit, F. Prinsloo, G. Vos.

1st Round: Gala 10, 19 Stirling County; Stewarts Melville 21, 24 Boroughmuir; Hawick 31, 17 Currie; Heriot's 27, 14 Hawks; Kelso 26, 14 Edinburgh Accies; Langholm 12, 29 West of Scotland; Dundee HSFP 17, 22 Peebles; Jed-Forest 24, 19 Aberdeen.

2nd Round: Stirling County 14, 24 Selkirk; Boroughmuir 12, 29 Uni of Johannesburg; Hawick 5, 42 Watsonians; Heriot's 21, 17 Cambridge Uni; Kelso 19, 17 Ayr; West of Scotland 7, 33 Army of Scotland; Peebles 0, 45 Melrose; Jed-Forest 0, 33 Hamilton.

Quarter-finals: Selkirk 12, 19 Uni of Johannesburg; Watsonians 7, 29 Heriot's; Kelso 12, 35 Army of Scotland; Melrose 14, 17 Hamilton.

Semi-finals: Uni of Johannesburg 17, 5 Heriot's; Army of Scotland 5, 35 Hamilton.

Final: Uni of Johannesburg 26, 35 Hamilton