Boroughmuir 60
Hawick 18
GARY HEATLY @ Meggetland
BOROUGHMUIR scored 10 tries to comfortably defeat Hawick and move further away from The Greens at the bottom of the BT Premiership table.
In the process, they lifted the Hugh Macmaster Trophy, the silverware played for annually between the two teams in memory of the back-row who represented both clubs with great distinction.
This was Boroughmuir’s second win of the campaign and elevated them past Marr and Watsonians to seventh in the BT Premiership table, while Hawick are still winless with seven losses from seven.
“I am pleased with the way the guys approached this one. They knew that last Saturday wasn’t good enough in parts, but we had a great week of training with some great chats between coaches and players and they went into this in a positive mindset,” said home head coach Peter Wright.
“We still have to look at our discipline because that kept Hawick in the match for longer than they should have been, but in attack the guys played some lovely rugby and we have to go on and build on this now. Next up is an Edinburgh derby at Watsonians so it is exciting.”
The home side got off to a flying start and what was worrying for Hawick, not for the first time this season, was the ease with which the opposition brushed off tackles. No.8 Craig Keddie and skipper Johnny Matthews had good early breaks and in the third minute back-row Matt Walker ran a good line to cut in under the posts for the day’s first try. Stand-off Greg Cannie converted.
That seemed to waken Hawick up and a couple of minutes later they almost bagged a try of their own, winger Lewis Ferguson just being squeezed out in the corner. Then, in the 11th minute, hooker Fraser Renwick was ruled to have knocked the ball on in the act of scoring by French exchange referee Herve Lasausa. Play was taken back for an earlier penalty infringement and full-back Ali Weir did get three points on the board for visitors.
Boroughmuir responded immediately were back on the front foot and breaking those midfield tackles again. This time, in the 14th minute, it was scrum-half Johnny Adams bursting through before setting up winger Grant McConnell for a well-worked score. Cannie converted.
A Weir penalty then made it 14-6 as the end of the first quarter of proceedings approached. However, the home side began the second quarter as they had the first and try number three soon arrived when. Walker burst through and then flung a long pass left to winger Jordan Edmunds. He was stopped in his tracks, but back-row Dan Marek was on hand to go over.
And in the 24th minute, Boroughmuir moved onto 24 points and grabbed the four-try bonus point thanks to a neat move from full-back Ciaran Whyte which left the backline queuing up to score.
Hawick did grab a first try of the afternoon in the 29th minute through skipper Bruce McNeil, but less than 60 seconds later the same man was sin-binned.
Boroughmuir would have had a fifth try soon off the back of that, if only a couple of players had spun the ball wide rather than going for glory themselves.
They did get another try two minutes before the interval, Cannie going over after Matthews had gone close. Cannie also converted for a 31-11 lead.
Before Hawick grabbed a lifeline on the stroke of half-time, when Renwick running a great line to nearly score a try and then former Scotland cap Craig Hamilton taking the ball on to finish the move off.
Matthews was yellow carded two minutes into the second half, but three minutes later it was the shorthanded hosts scoring again. Whyte ran a lovely line to go over for his second try with Cannie converting to make it 38-18.
It took Boroughmuir until the 59th minute to score try number seven through livelier winger Edmunds; centre Michael Brown – son of former Boroughmuir hooker Barrie – went over on his debut; before replacements Rory Scott and Jack Hamilton put the icing on the cake with tries number nine and 10.
Eastern BMW are proud to support Boroughmuir RugbyTeams –
Boroughmuir: C Whyte; G McConnell, M Brown, R Kerr, J Edmunds; G Cannie, J Adams; R Dunbar, J Adams, D Winning, T Drennan, A Erskine, D Marek, M Walker, C Keddie. Subs used: C Davies, D Robertson, A Mncube, J Hamilton, R Scott.
Hawick: A Weir; K Brunton, G Johnstone, D Buckley, L Ferguson; D McCracken, G Cotterill; S Muir, F Renwick, N Little, C Hamilton, D Redpath, G Graham, S Graham, B McNeil. Subs used: M Carryer, M Landels, K Bryce, R Gibson, K Davies.
Scorers –
Boroughmuir: Tries: Walker, McConnell, Marek, Whyte 2, Cannie, Edmunds, Brown, Scott, Hamilton. Cons: Cannie 5.
Hawick: Tries: McNeil, Hamilton; Con: Weir; Pens: Weir 2.
Scoring sequence (Boroughmuir first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-3; 12-3; 14-3; 14-6; 19-6; 24-6; 24-11; 29-11; 31-11; 31-16; 31-18 (h-t) 36-18; 38-18; 43-18; 48-18; 53-18; 55-18; 60-18.
Yellow cards –
Boroughmuir: Matthews.
Hawick: McNeil.
Referee: H Lasausa.
Man-of-the-Match: There were a number of candidates on the Boroughmuir side – back-row Dan Marek, centre Michael Brown and full-back Ciaran Whyte coming close – but for his industry up front and all-action showing second-row Archie Erskine just takes the prize.
Talking point: Can Boroughmuir use this confidence-boosting result to go on a run? They have a number of new faces in their ranks, but they are exciting young players and with a bit of belief and if they cam stay switched on for 80 minutes they can give anyone in the top flight a game on their day.
READ ALL ABOUT THE OTHER BT PREMIERSHIP GAMES THIS WEEK BY CLICKING ON THE LINKS BELOW –
BT Premiership: Hawks hold on against spirited Watsonians revival
BT Premiership: 14-man Chieftains dig deep for victory over Stirling County
BT Premiership: Ayr blow hapless Heriot’s away
https://theoffsideline.com/2017/10/14/bt-premiership-melrose-march-ten-try-romp