Melrose Rugby was founded in 1877 and was elected to full membership of the Scottish Rugby Union in 1880. In the early years, the club’s achievements were modest. Their first Border League success came in 1910-11 and the second in 1938-39. Since the Second World War Melrose has remained among Scotland’s leading clubs. The unofficial championship was won in 1951-52, 1962-63 and 1966-67 and the Border League won five times between the war and 1971.
League rugby was introduced to Scotland in 1973 at a difficult time for Melrose and in the early years of the competition, the club often struggled in the relegation area of the 1st Division. Twice they were relegated but on both occasions came straight back as Division 2 Champions. The 1980s saw steady improvement, with Melrose finishing third in 1987-88 and winning the championship in 1989-90. This victory was followed by the most consistently successful period in the club’s history with successful championship wins in 1992, 1993, 1995, and five times Border League Champions.
The inaugural Tennents Premiership was also won in 1996 following a points differential win over Stirling County, and again in 1997. In 1997 Melrose also won the SRU Tennants National Cup – the first team to win this trophy and the Border League Championship, as well as the Melrose Sevens Cup – all in all, the most successful season ever for the Club. Further success in recent years has seen:
- 9 Premiership wins,
- 4 Scottish Cup wins and
- 8 Kings of the Sevens titles.
Melrose has provided 30 internationalists. Kelly Brown is the most capped with 64 caps, followed by George (Doddie) Weir, who gained 61 caps. Other caps include Craig Chalmers (60 caps) and Jim Telfer, who had a tremendous influence over the club’s fortunes as a player and coach, and, until recently was coaching The Wasps our semi-junior team. Jim is also a former Director of Rugby for Scotland and the British Lions coach. With the advent of professional rugby, several former players have represented Scotland at both fifteens and sevens and Melrose has provided 19 Club Internationalists since this level of the game was introduced, with five in the starting line-up for season 2009-10.
