School sports rugby: Watson's and Merchiston in fine fettle for cup campaign GEORGE WATSON'S College and Merchiston Castle School continued to flex their muscles ahead of the first round of Brewin Dolphin Scottish Schools under-18 Cup, suggesting that both will go in to the competition as title favourites. At Myreside, Watson's showed strength and finesse in powering to a 44-3 win over RGS, Newcastle, while at Inverleith Merchiston overcame a strong Stewart's-Melville College side 25-15. Another of the cup favourites are Edinburgh Academy, who opened their season with a 55-22 win over Dollar Academy, that included a hat-trick of tries from winger Tom Salisbury. In the west, Glasgow High School triumphed in their local derby match against Glasgow Academy with a 26-8 victory, Hutchesons" were 18-12 winners against Kelvinside Academy and Marr College achieved an emphatic 50-7 result against Lomond School. Meanwhile, the first round of the cup proper begins in Glasgow tomorrow when Hutchesons" Grammar take on Glasgow High School while on Saturday Edinburgh Academy face Fettes College. The games will go ahead against a continuing background of dissent over the SRU's decision to raise the eligibility age from January to September. The Union has sought to justify their decision, opposed by a large swathe of day schools, on the grounds of greater inclusion. "This issue has been around for the past three or four years but this year we did an analysis of registered players," said Nick Rennie, who heads up club and schools rugby at Murrayfield. We found that there were just over 200 players who were not eligible representing 13 per cent of those registered. Nine to ten per cent were from state schools and four per cent from independents. If that is the case, then, that means that approximately 150 state pupils were ineligible. Given that last season there were approximately 230 state schools registered, then the number ineligible in this sector was on average less than one per school. Moreover, most day independents are reporting that they rarely had pupils who were ineligible for the January date, which means that the bulk of the over age players are in the boarding schools. In fact, the SRU admits that the boarding schools average ten per school who were ineligible. Rennie, however, argues that the change brings the schools cup into line with the club competition. It was confusing for parents that some youngsters [with birthdays between September and January] could play in the club competition but not in the schools cup.