Scotland have announced their strongest available squad for the two tests to Argentina next month. Mike Blair will captain the side while Moray Low, Ben Cairns and Thom Evans will be travelling as uncapped players looking to break through to win their first caps. Four players are still to be added to the 30 man squad which will be coached by Frank Hadden, with Andy Robinson, Sean Lineen and Alan Tait part of the coaching set-up.

The A team squad for the Churchill Cup in Canada will be coached by Rob Moffat. 26 of the 27 men have been selected and Fraser Thomson will captain the side. Shade Munro, Gary Mercer and Stephen Gemmell will make up the coaching staff.

Jed-Forest shocked Scottish Cup winners 17-10 in the Border League on Tuesday night to win a place in the Border League Cup Final on Monday 12th May.

Melrose killed off Heriot's by romping to a 31-0 lead in the early part of the second half, but they had to fend off a spirited revival which saw the Goldenacre men claw their way back with 24 un-answered points before the whistle blew. But it was a comprehensive first half display from 'Rose which blew Heriot's out of the water with tries from Jordan Macey, David Whiteford, Callum Anderson and Wayne Mitchell - all converted by man-of-the-match Scott Wight. Wight also added a penalty just after the break before Heriot's staged their comeback, scoring tries by Cameron Goodall, Innes Brown, Oliver Brown and James Thompson, with Graham Wilson converting two. Coach Craig Chalmers said afterwards that coaching the winning team was "as good if not better" than the feeling he had when he won the Cup as a player. 36 year old Prop Richard Higgins made it a family double. His daughter Hayley was part of the Melrose ladies team who won the Bowl competition on the back pitches.

Garnock shocked Kirkcaldy in the Shield competition by the same scoreline, 31-24, but Kirkcaldy, well behind early on, came back to level with only a few minutes left. But Paul McCrorie went over for his third try of the afternoon to clinch the trophy at the third attempt for the club; well deserved following the disappointment of losing by a point to Falkirk last year.

Preston Lodge were crowned Bowl champions after beating Dalziel 18-10 while in the Plate Aberdeen University survived a comeback from Portobello FP to win 27-21, after leading 19-0.

6,000 people attended the event, which, if the talk is true, could be the last ever competition. It would be a tragedy is this is the case but there are serious financial and logistic issues to be addressed in the coming months with regards the make-up of the competition as it stands at the moment.

Glasgow Warriors won away from home at Ulster this afternoon. Their 35-24 win included a four try bonus and puts them into the top five in the Magners League, just behind Edinburgh. Fa'atau, Beattie, Max and Thom Evans all crossed the tryline for Glasgow.

Edinburgh left it very late - eight minutes into injury time - to beat Ospreys 19-18 in Wales, and in doing so they registered their first ever league win against the Ospreys on the road. Indiscipline nearly cost them the game - James Hook scored six penalties for the Welsh side - but Edinburgh scored the only three tries of the match to ensure they stay in third place in the Magners League table. Edinburgh's tries came from Nick De Luca, Ali Hogg and Alan MacDonald with Calum MacRae kicking two conversions.

Meanwhile Chris Paterson is to return to Edinburgh after his one year contract at Gloucester expires. Chris had limited starts down in Gloucester and will hope for more game time at his old club. More good news for Edinburgh is that Backs Coach Rob Moffat told Scottish Rugby Radio that there will be nobody leaving the club to ply their trade elsewhere and he is delighted that this will give stability to the club.

Scotland cap Jim Hamilton will be joining Edinburgh next season in a three year deal. The 25 year old is excited about the prospect of playing his rugby in Scotland and being coached by Andy Robinson. Mike Blair, Ross Rennie and Ross Ford have committed themselves to the club with long term contracts.

Newcastle Falcons won the Langholm Centenary Sevens at Milntown on Saturday for the fourth year running while at Peebles it was three out of four for Watsonians, whose star player Mike Ker won the Player of the Tournament for the second year on the trot - the first time anyone has won it twice. Meanwhile over at Stirling, Kenny Logan's RBS All Stars beat Edinburgh in the final of the Ondeo-sponsored event. Murrayfield was host to six schools competitions with Bell Baxter taking the Cup for the second year in succession.

Cammy Mather has quit Watsonians as coach and is expected to ply his trade in the Professional Club arena.

Scotland's Sevens squad have been drawn in the same pool as South Africa, Australia and Argentina at the IRB World Sevens Series at Edinburgh on May 31st and June 1st. The Emirates Airline-sponsored event is the final event in the competition.

John Dalziel and Kieran Cooney have lost their appeals against suspension from foul play against Boroughmuir in a match earlier in the season and will now be banned from appearing at the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup Final on May 3rd as a result.

The discipline panel confirmed that Cooney had deliberately stamped on the head of Boroughmuir's Rory Couper causing him to need plastic surgery. He has been suspended for six weeks. Meanwhile John Dalziel was found guilty of reckless use of the boot on the same player and has been suspended for three weeks.

The appeal committee reaffirmed that they were unable to determine that either player caused the injury to Rory Couper's head.

Frank Hadden will stay as Scotland Head Coach following a review of the RBS 6 Nations performance of Scotland. Alan Tait and George Graham have been let go and will be offered different positions within the Scottish Rugby set-up. Chief Executive of the SRU, Gordon McKie, says that Hadden is still the man for the job and the appointments to the national team of Lineen and Robinson, coaches of Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively, will strengthen the coaching team going into next season.

Edinburgh have confirmed they will play their home matches at Murrayfield next season following almost a tripling of fans at the turnstiles. Although a smaller stadium would be the answer there simply isn't one available, and the hope is that Edinburgh can build on their success in the Magners League next season to attract even more next year.

A further review will take place after the Argentina tests in June.

The Final of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup on May 3rd will be between two former winners - Heriot's and Melrose - after the two won through their semi finals today. Heriot's put seven tries past Premier 2 Jed-Forest to win comfortably 47-14 while in the other clash Watsonians were destroyed in the first half by Melrose, who raced to a 20-0 lead early on. They held on to run out 23-10 winners.

The Shield Final will be between Garnock and Kirkcaldy after Garnock disposed of Premier 3 team Ardrossan and the Fifers took the scalp of RHC.  The Bowl Final on May 3rd will see Preston Lodge and Dalziel battle it out after they got through their semi final ties against Caithness and Linlithgow respectively. Aberdeen University and Portobello FP will contest the Plate Final after the two beat GHK and Clydebank in their games.

Hawick won their own Sevens with a convincing 31-7 win against Selkirk in the Final. Selkirk put out favourites Newcastle Falcons in the semi final, stopping them from a potential hat-trick of titles at Mansfield Park.  Kelso beat Selkirk in the final of the Berwick Sevens tournament.  In the Meggetland Sevens Boroughmuir beat Edinburgh Gunners in the final by 21-7.

Felipe Contepomi hit the post with a penalty attempt at the very end of the match between Edinburgh and Leinster, and that meant Edinburgh, with two tries to one, prevented Leinster from winning the Magners League title at Murrayfield.

It looked ominous from the start as Edinburgh's pack were dismantled by the Irish forwards, but a massive display in defence, combined with a knack of taking their opportunities gave Edinburgh the four points.  Although Leinster went ahead with a Contepomi penalty early on it was Ross Ford who put the home side in front with a try converted by Godman.  Godman and Contepomi exchanged penalties before the break but David Callam stretched the Gunners lead with 10 minutes to go breaking through to score.

Leinster's only try from Luke Fitzgerald, converted by Contepomi, set up a grandstand finish and into injury time you would have bet your house on Contepomi scoring with the last kick of the game from 35 metres out in front of the post. He struck the woodwork and the referee blew for full time. Edinburgh won 15-13.

Glasgow Warriors beat Llanelli Scarlets 25-23, with three tries from Parks, Gregor and Pinder. Trailing 10 points with 12 minutes to go a couple of late tries edged Glasgow past the Scarlets for a double win for Scottish sides.

Scotland's fixtures for next year's RBS 6 Nations competition will see them kick off on Sunday 8th February with a home game against Wales. Saturday 14th February is the date for the match in Paris against France before another home tie against Italy on the 28th.

Saturday 14th March is the date for the game at Murrayfield against Ireland (5pm kick off) before ending with the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham on 21st March at 3.30pm.

Meanwhile Scotland's Sevens squad have been drawn in the same pool as Samoa and Kenya (the two seeded teams) as well as Russia.  That penultimate leg of the IRB World Sevens Series takes place over the weekend of 24th/25th May while a week later the tournament concludes at Murrayfield.

The S.H.E. Cup semi final match on Saturday between Watsonians and Melrose will not take place at Myreside because the goal posts at the school-owned pitch have already been dismantled to accommodate the start of the athletics season and a decision has been made to play the game at Meggetland as hosting the game at Myreside would "not be practical" according to the Watsonians website.

Former internationalist Donald Sloan has died aged 81. The former centre, who played seven times for Scotland in the 1950s, played his club rugby with Edinburgh Accies. His father Allen also played for Scotland.

Scotland, under the name Scottish Thistles, lifted the 125 Mathon Melrose Sevens title for the first time with a convincing win over Leicester Tigers in the Final at The Greenyards by 33-12.

The national Scottish Sevens Squad were onto a hiding to nothing after poor results in the IRB World Sevens Series in Hong Kong and Adelaide. They knew that anything less than a final appearance would leave their credibility in tatters, and they came out and showed that they could handle immense pressure and turn in a magnificent display in the Final.

They beat Currie, Roma and Ulster on the way to the final, and it was interesting to see the squad turn jeers into cheers as the 10,000 crowd warmed to the team's display which got better and better as the tournament went on.

Melrose played out of their skins to make the semi final with a tremendous display in front of their home support, but playing two games within fifteen minutes of each other did them no favours as they ran out of steam against the Leicester professionals one match away from the final.

Earlier China's national team, who shocked Scotland in the Hong Kong Sevens, were humbled by Jed-Forest who also took the scalp of Hawick.  Kelso also pulled off a shock by disposing of Heriot's - last week's winners of the Gala Sevens - in round one.

The three day event has proved to be a great success and one of the organisers, Keith Robertson, said afterwards that there's a possibility this format may be repeated again. First there will be a full review by the club who will decide shortly how things develop in the future.

Glasgow Warriors closed the gap on Edinburgh in the Magners League as they gained revenge for the 35-31 defeat earlier in the season to win the 1872 Cup awarded to the team who wins on aggregate over the two games. And it was Dan Parks who did the damage scoring all 23 points for his club as they won this one 23-14. Parks scored two tries, two conversions, a penalty and two drop goals to complete a full house.

There were scores early on - two tries in the first ten minutes. Andy Turnbull put Edinburgh ahead early on following a Ben Cairns break which saw him run between Henderson and Morrison. Turbull took Cairns' pass to dive over, but minutes later Dan Parks saw a gap and popped in near the posts. With his conversion successful Warriors were up 7-5. Phil Godman edged Edinburgh into the lead again with a penalty, but that was cancelled out by Parks who popped over a simple drop goal. It was Godman though who gave the Gunners the half time lead with a last moment penalty before the interval.

Parks and Godman exchanged further penalties as the rain poured down at the start of the second half but a piece of Parks magic with ten minutes remaining saw him judge a little kick through to perfection. Barclay was there to pick up and pass back inside to Evans who in turn slipped the scoring pass to Parks. The conversion was simple but he rubbed salt into the Edinburgh wound with another drop goal to secure the game.

Jed-Forest, the only Premier 2 team left in the Cup competition, have been drawn away in the Semi Final of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup. They will play either Heriot's or Ayr, while Watsonians will play at home against Melrose.

In the Shield competition, Ardrossan Accies have been drawn away to Garnock, while in the other tie Hawick YM or Kirkcaldy will meet RHC.

The Bowl Semi Finals has Caithness at home to Preston Lodge FP and Linlithgow will play Dalziel. In the Plate draw Portobello FP will take on Clydebank and Aberdeen University will host GHK. All ties will be played on April 19th.