Melrose kept alive their slim chance of catching Hawick at the top of BT Scotland Premiership with an impressive 37-16 win over Heriot's FP at the Greenyards.

A four-try bonus point gained means it is still possible for Melrose to catch the Premiership leaders Hawick, who were mistakenly handed the trophy for a short while a week ago.

In difficult conditions made worse by the frequent flurries of snow, Melrose produced a superb second-half display by their forwards to dominate the latter stages.

There were good performances from hooker Wayne Mitchell, flanker John Dalziel and veteran lock Robbie Brown, who equalled the club record in his 330th appearance.

For Heriot's , who could yet face Melrose in the final of the BT Cellnet Cup, it was a disappointing game, their forwards outgunned by the Melrose eight and their backs unable to cope with the treacherous underfoot conditions.

It was Melrose who claimed the first points with a try by stand-off Scott Ruthven from his own charge down of opposite number Ander Monroe's attempted clearance kick.

Centre Callum MacRae converted but Heriot's, after missing a shot at goal when Monroe hooked his kick, quickly replied with a period of pressure that ended with skipper Jock Bryce peeling round a line-out before charging over for his side's first try.

This time Monroe made no mistake with his attempt at goal, the stand-off adding the conversion points to level the scores.

The deadlock remained after MacRae and Monroe had exchanged penalties to leave the teams tied at 10-10 going into the interval.

A sweeping move started by Ruthven and carried on by hooker Mitchell and No.8 Jamie Henderson gave Melrose an attacking field position early in the second half.

When Heriot's infringed MacRae had little difficulty in kicking the close-range penalty goal to give the Borderers the lead for the third time in the match.

Melrose then increased their lead with a move from a line-out in the corner that resulted in a try for Mitchell, converted by MacRae.

The Borderers maintained their second-half momentum with a series of forward drives at the Heriot's line and when Melrose were awarded a scrum five metres out, Henderson controlled the ball well to claim a pushover try, again converted by MacRae.

Heriot's, trailing 27-10, hit back with an interception by Gregor Lawson, but the full-back was hunted down by wing Alec Clark and MacRae. But the Borderers were adjudged to have infringed at the tackle, leaving Monroe with an easy penalty kick.

Mitchell went over for his second try from a driven line-out for Melrose's fourth overall, and Monroe converted for a personal total of 17 points.

Elsewhere in Division One on Sunday, Boroughmuir v Gala was postponed, while Jed-Forest scored six tries to beat Kirkcaldy 36-20.