Melrose

Melrose had been playing fifteen-a-side rugby since 1877, but by 1883 Ned Haig and David Sanderson needed a way to raise money for the club. The first Sevens tournament was staged at The Greenyards that year, and Melrose beat Gala in extra time to win it. The World Rugby Hall of Fame inducted both the club and Haig in 2008.

The ground itself absorbed the consequences of that invention: it has to hold roughly 15,000 for the annual Sevens, against a main stand seating 1,174 for ordinary league fixtures, and in 2019 the club laid a 4G surface to cope with the volume of play that a tournament ground demands.

On the abbreviated game they invented, they hold the record for consecutive Sevens titles, six in a row from 2010 to 2015. Between 2019 and 2024 the club also fielded a professional side, the Southern Knights, in the Super 6 competition — a considerable undertaking for a town of about 2,000 people.