Kelso keeping up pressure on Gala at top of rugby’s Tennent’s National League Division 1 by matching five-game winning streak

Both have won all five of their matches so far this season, with only a single try bonus point separating table-toppers Gala, on 24 points, from second-placed Kelso, on 23.

At least one of the two Borders sides’ winning streaks will end this coming Saturday, however, as they come up against each other at Netherdale in Galashiels, with kick-off at 3pm.

Their meetings last season ended with honours even, yielding home wins on both occasions, by 22-14 at Gala last September and by 20-14 at Poynder Park in Kelso in December, so both will be out to get the upper hand this time round.

Kelso kept up their winning start to the season at home to fifth-placed Highland on Saturday, prevailing 24-21 in the end after letting a 15-point lead slip.

On the scoresheet for the hosts were Keith Melbourne, Bruce McNeil and Liam Herdman with tries, Dwain Patterson converting all three and adding a penalty.

Their Inverness opponents’ try-scorers were Magnus Henry, Gordon Gregor and Hugo Crush, with Scott Fraser kicking two penalties.

Kelso player-coach McNeil was relieved to see his side emerge victorious but unhappy about it ending up such a close-run thing, telling Borders Rugby TV afterwards: “I’m disappointed, to be fair.

“Credit to Highland – they came down with a game-plan and implemented it.

“We played not too bad in the first half and then just fell off in the second half, so there’s lots to work on, but a win’s a win, I suppose.

“It’s good to win ugly, but I’d rather win and play better as well.

“Some things went right, but the pleasing thing is that we were still in there.

“It feels like a defeat, to be fair. We could have kicked on and really put a score on them, but they came at us and they changed their game-plan at half-time and we just didn’t adapt quick enough.”

McNeil says Kelso will be treating this weekend’s derby like any other game, adding: “We’ll prepare for it as we have done for the last five or six games.

“We’ve just got to stick to our game-plan. It’s been working so far so we’ll not be changing too much.”