MWFC ii arrived at Kelso with a mixed feeling of a team going places, but aware of the test that lay ahead of them. Considerable changes in the back line from the win at Lasswade, but no-one felt the side was particularly weaker. Joining the team for their first game for the club were, Chris Rhodes and Stewart Gray and joining us from regular matches for the 1st team were Ben Thomas and Phil Anderson. Stepping up from the three were Martin Kershaw and Jimmy Johnson.

Murrayfield started promisingly gaining ground and John Lee looking on good form. The forwards dominated the scrum from the offset and this gave MWFC the upper hand whenever a mistake was made as almost every scrum was won by the travelling side. Kelso looked sharp in the backs and their big scrum half showed promise and an eagerness to look for the breakaway. There appeared to be an air of over confidence in the Kelso back line as they were in strong attacking positions and were twice stripped in the tackle; first by Scott Fraser and then in a very similar incidence by Rick Howes. On both occasions quick hands from Ewan Eley and Iestyn Richards-Rees released Jimmy Johnson to sprint 60 metres to add points. It was good to see him running with confidence and on the first occasion was just tap tackled by his opposite number, but managed to pop the ball for Ewan Eley to score and scored himself the second time. Calum Gauld missed the first kick marginally, but slotted the second.

Calum Gauld added a penalty which was matched by the Kelso 10. Kelso also managed to sneak a try after some persistent attack and the score line at half time was 15-8 to the touring Wanderers.

There were a few changes at half time as Calum moved to the wing giving Jimmy a well earned rest. New boy Chris Rhodes took to the field at fly half and Andy Thorburn replaced Martin Kershaw who had made a menace of himself all game and filled the role that had earned him his selection. Iestyn R-R moved to full back, Michael Cahill moved to wing and Stewart Gray moved to centre.

Kelso started the second half very well and had obviously been given a firm kick in the rear at half time. The MWFC lineout was now dominant as Kelso made the change of moving their young flanker to hooker. The referee decided that it was time to throw away any notion of hooking for the home side and Kelso managed to win their own scrums for the next 30 minutes. In this period they got a bit more go forward. Without a forward in the midfield to defend their big centres drew in the MWFC defence and looked for the offload that created unanswered tries. As the referee had nullified the Wandies dominance at the scrum by allowing blatant feeding even the fresh legs of Chris Walkden, Ally Chalmers and Dave Clark couldn't alter the balance. After a few excursions into the Kelso 22 only 3 points were scored by Wanderers in the second half. Ben Thomas left the field for the final 10 minutes and Martin Kershaw rejoined the match. After some ‘advice’ from the touch line the referee insisted that Kelso had to hook and once more MWFC became dominant and put pressure on Kelso, but no further scores were made.

It had been a good performance from MWFC and there had been some stand out work from Scott Fraser who did his technical work very well and was active across the park. John Lee had a great first half, but ran out of steam. Andy Thorburn had shown patches of good play and Rick Howes had worked tirelessly in the scrum and become quite dominant in the line out. Kenny Watson had shown himself to be a good replacement at 9 and had been steady at set piece and tidied up ball when needed.