Red-faced Scottish Rugby Union officials have apologised for presenting the BT Scotland Premiership trophy to Hawick - by mistake!

The BT Scotland Premiership Division 1 Championship Trophy was handed to Hawick at Mansfield Park before the Union spotted that Melrose could yet overhaul the runaway leaders to win the title.

When the mistake was identified, the Union telephoned both clubs to tender an apology.

On an extraordinary, farcical afternoon, Hawick's Keith Davidson scored their fourth try in the 79th minute in a 31-9 win at home to Gala, and when it was heard by telephone from Meggetland that second-placed Boroughmuir had lost 16-24 to Currie, the celebrations started.

What nobody at Hawick - or the Union - had worked out was that Melrose, who were in the process of beating Glasgow Hawks 43-0, could still catch the leaders with maximum points and bonus points from their final three matches.

Unaware of the significance of the result 30 miles away, the Hawick players had been dancing and celebrating their win behind their goalposts before crossing the pitch to climb up into the stand, where they were handed the trophy by Graham Young, the SRU vice-president

"I was under the impression that if Hawick won and Boroughmuir lost that was it," Young said. "If the SRU have not done their homework properly, that is not clever. Mathematically, I suppose Melrose could still win it. We should not have handed over the trophy. It is quite embarrassing."

Boroughmuir had appeared to be Hawick's only rivals for the last few months, but Melrose have been kept plugging away to keep in touch with the leaders.

Hawick are currently leading the table on 65 points with two matches to play. Melrose are in third place on 50 points with three games to play.

For Melrose to win the championship they would have to win each of their three remaining games, scoring four or more tries in each game and boosting their points differential (currently standing at 179 to surpass Hawick's 257). In addition, Hawick would have to lose both their remaining games by more than seven points in each game.

The remaining fixtures are:-

Hawick
V Glasgow Hawks at Old Anniesland on Saturday 24 March
V Watsonians at Mansfield Park on the weekend of 7/8 April

Melrose
V Heriot's FP at the Greenyards on Sunday 18 March
V Currie at Malleny Park on Saturday 24 March
V Gala at Netherdale on the weekend of 7/8 April.