Michael Jaffray and Paul Minto were in the Border Reivers squad who came runners-up to tournament favourites Ulster in the veterans' 10s tournament.

Over the space of two days they played six games of rugby in the most atrocious weather conditions since Selkirk secured promotion at Biggar.

Speaking to The Wee Paper this week, however, 39-year-old fireman Jaffray had nothing but praise for the tournament.

He told us: "It was great fun, as well as having a good element of competitiveness to it.

"The Reivers team worked well together, considering we hadn't played together before Thursday, and we were really chuffed to get to the final."

The Reivers blasted through their pool games on Thursday with convincing victories over the Cayman Islanders and Palmer, with Jaffray scoring one of two tournament tries against the latter. In Friday's knockout stages, they saw off the Haugue 37-5 and Edinburgh 30-10 to reach the final, where they lost 17-5.

Jaffray, who also scored against Edinburgh, added: "It was quite nerve-wracking playing Edinburgh as they had Scott Hastings and Rowan Shephard playing for them. The weather was shocking, though, and we chose the right tactics.

"The final was a different story. Ulster had a great team, featuring many former internationals. We felt we played well enough, though, and began to come back at the end. If the ground had allowed us to run a bit more, who knows?"

Another former Selkirk star, John Rutherford, joined in the celebrations on Thursday night, when he appeared on stage with Richie Gray during a Legends night held in the marquee at Gibson Park.

During a 10-minute interview with the Galashiels rugby pundit, Rutherford admitted to getting nervous prior to big rugby events, before treating the large company to a rousing rendition of the ever-popular Gala rugby anthem, in which everyone joined in.

Selkirk also had a team entered in the youths' tournament on Friday. The young Souters came top of their group in the pool stages, beating Barnhill 15-7, Strathendrick 45-0 and Kirkcaldy 36-5, before being put out at the semi-final stage by eventual winners Boroughmuir 33-0.

On Saturday, as reigning Kings of the Sevens, Selkirk received a bye into the second round of the main event. However, the Souters had the misfortune to run slap-bang into an in-form Melrose team, who scored four unanswered tries to defeat the Philiphaugh men 24-0.

Missing both Lee Jones (on Scotland under-20 duty) and Gavin Craig (injured), it was left to scrum-half Fraser Harkness to carry Selkirk's attacking hopes. He duly obliged by turning in a typically battling display – making two sizzling breaks in the first half, which almost produced tries.