Borders Sevens lack glamour of old but remain a fun afternoon of rugby - Allan Massie

The Borders Sevens aren’t what they were, haven’t indeed been that since professional rugby was permitted. Even so the decline wasn’t immediate.

If one no longer saw current Scottish internationalists, future ones were on view. At Melrose for instance around the turn of the century, the Player of the Tournament Award went in quick succession to Chris Paterson, Marcus Di Rollo and Mike Blair, none of whom, as I recall, would feature on the amateur Sevens circuit again. Moreover, now that some sort of order has been brought to the professional game even here in Scotland, comparably talented youngsters will now often have full professional contracts with Glasgow and Edinburgh from an early age. Once upon a time Stuart Hogg and Darcy Graham would have shone, probably for years, in a Hawick Seven, as well as in the Six Nations.

Selkirk could once field two British Lions in their Seven – John Rutherford and Iain Paxton – while another Lion of that 1983 vintage, Roger Baird, scored try after try in a great Kelso Seven which latterly included another future Lion, John Jeffrey. No wonder some feel that the glory has departed from the Sevens circuit.

Attendances at club matches have also declined, and one consequence is that only the most knowledgeable spectators at any Sevens tournament will recognize the players on view. At the same time spectators no longer have the opportunity to mingle between ties with international stars. What one may call the rugby family is now divided; and the Sevens are poorer as a consequence, poorer because certainly less glamourous.

Nevertheless the clubs remain fully committed to the Sevens. The King of the Sevens league table has proved a success, and an afternoon at the Sevens – Selkirk today – is