The Greenyards

Melrose Rugby Football Club plays there, and the ground is defined by its setting rather than its facilities.

It is a rugby ground, not a football stadium. The yellow goalposts stand at either end of the pitch, and the grass is cut short for the fast running that defines the game. Most visitors come for the sevens tournament, but the ground hosts Southern Knights matches as well. The capacity figures found online do not match, so we cannot say exactly how many fit; there is a permanent seated area of 1,174, but the total crowd swells to fifteen thousand on the big day. The site was gifted to the town by Charles Ormiston via the Ormiston Trust.

The matchday experience is shaped by the weather. The ground sits in the valley, and the wind sweeps straight down from the hills through the stands. There is no roof over most of the seating, so spectators watch with their backs against the wall of the weather. The pitch cuts up badly on wet days, and the mud is thick enough to stick to boots.

Rugby sevens began here in 1883. That history sits in the grass, though nobody points to it. The ground has no name change to tell of; it has always been The Greenyards. The land was once marsh, drained by monks, but the water is gone now. What remains is the fence around the pitch and the trees behind the stand. The ground is not built for comfort. It is built for the game.