Greens take on Gala in must-win game for both teams to beat drop
AT the weekend a man from Hawick lit up BT Murrayfield with two tries, and now, this Saturday, the town’s first XV are looking to hit the heights themselves in a crucial match in the BT Premiership,
The Greens host Gala in round 17 of the top-flight campaign, with the hosts sitting in ninth place and the visitors in 10th.
Gala know that a loss will all but condemn them to life in the second tier for next season while Hawick know that a win would help them move away from the relegation play-off place – a defeat on the other hand could see them bottom at the close of play.
With just one regular season fixture remaining after this weekend, it really is all to play for at Mansfield Park. And Hawick prop Shawn Muir is looking forward to the game.
The 23-year-old said: “We played Gala twice in January. We won in the Border League and they won the BT Cup game, so this is the decider.
“We know what Gala bring and we have done analysis on them. If we can execute the game plan Nikki Walker, the head coach, has for us we can hopefully get the result we want.
“Gala play with a lot of heart and never give up and they will know what we bring. It is a massive game – probably the biggest in both clubs’ recent history. But these are the types of games all players should enjoy and hopefully we are the winning team.
“As a group, it hasn’t been the season we had been expecting. Our aim was to challenge for a top-four play-off place, but a slow start and injuries cost us and now we are where we deserve to be.
“The table doesn’t lie and there’s no excuses coming from the team as it hasn’t been good enough. But there is still time to turn things around and we have the players capable of defeating anyone in the league on our day, as we showed against Glasgow Hawks recently.
“I’m just looking to finish the season as strongly as possible and play the best rugby I can.”
As a local lad, Muir, who has earned Scotland under-20 and Club XV caps previously, knows how much staying in the top-flight means to the people of Hawick.
And he, and the rest of the forwards, loves working with former Scotland cap Scott MacLeod, who is part of the coaching team.
“Scotty is great for us. He has improved us as a pack massively. He has played at the highest level so is top-class when it comes to the set-piece,” Muir said.
“We must have one of the lightest packs in the league, but punch way above our weight and make up for it in other aspects of the game and he has played a big part in helping us do that.”