Currie Chieftains 19

Hawick 12

Atholl Innes

at Malleny Park

HAWICK’S unbeaten run of eight successive matches came to an end at Malleny Park in the cup quarter-final and left head Coach George Graham ‘bitterly disappointed’.

The Greens atoned for a heavy defeat on the same ground earlier in the season with a strong, gutsy performance only to lose the try count three-two.

But few would disagree with Currie coach, Mark Cairns, that this ‘was a tremendous advert for club rugby’.

Graham felt that his team was just squeezed out of it, and the fact that Adam Hall missed a penalty kick to put the game beyond them in the final minutes, epitomised the pressure on both sides as referee Graeme Ormiston wound down the final seconds.

Graham said: “We were in the game until the last five or 10 minutes, but give Currie their due, they defended very well.

"Our boys just lacked a bit of game management.”

Currie just held control in the crucial stages near the end and Hawick, as they were for most of the match, played catch-up rugby, pulling back to 7-7 at the interval and then 12-12 after the break, before the final try sealed the home team’s win.

Wallace Nelson scored the opening try, which Hall converted, in 32 minutes, but Hawick continued to show resilience and it was Shawn Muir who again led by example with a driven-over try, converted by Ali Weir.

Currie held the upper hand on the restart without being in total command before Ryan Sutherland got the vital touchdown for a 12-7 lead. Hall missed the conversion.

But Hawick remained unrelenting and Andrew Mitchell burst through for a try, Bailey Donaldson missing the conversion – to leave it all square with 20 minutes left.

And it was Rhys Davies, with the third try converted by Hall, who opened the gap which Hawick were unable to close.

The game was a far cry from the first cup final won by Hawick in 1996, but the game was worthy of a bigger support ahead of a Burn supper in the clubrooms that night.

Hawick: K. Ford; L. G. Wooley, A. Mitchell, G. Walker, L. Ferguson; A. Weir, G. Welsh; S Muir, M. Carryer, D. Johnstone, D. Suddon, S. Fairbairn, J. Linton, B. McNeil, S. Graham. Replacements: C. Renwick, C. Bacherzewski, A. Piotrowski, M. Bannerman, B. Donaldson.