Blow to top four chances
County suffer defeat to Hawick
Hawick ................ 36 Stirling County ... 17
Stirling County’s hopes of finishing in the top-four of the BT Premiership suffered a blow after the Bridgehaugh men fell to a revitalised Hawick side at Mansfield Park.
The Bridgehaugh men knew beforehand that their opponents would not be a ‘shove over’ – as acknowledged by coach Graeme Young.
And Hawick certainly proved this to be the case, with a victory which reflected a new-found confidence amongst George Graham’s troops who had the better of the territory and possession.
It was the hosts who claimed the first points with a penalty goal by Ali Weir before Stirling hit back through Ross Curle. Curle took a deft pass from Craig Robertson to sprint over for a try, converted by Jonny Hope.
Stirling’s lead soon disappeared when Hawick scored their opening try courtesy of a driven line-out and a finish by Matt Carryer.
Just before the break Hawick extended their lead with try number two, made by a deft chip over the defence by Lee Armstrong. Dom Buckley gathered before Greig Cottrell made the running for Keith Davies to go in under the posts – leaving Weir with an easy conversion goal.
After the interval Stirling looked hungry to atone for first half frailties and their pressure was rewarded with a close range try by Ruaridh Leishman, converted by Hope.
However, Hawick replied immediately with a storming run by Bruce McNeil. When the ball was recycled Armstrong again applied the chip kick to give Buckley a try, with Weir adding the extras.
The visitors threatened briefly but their dividend was limited to a three-point kick by Hope.
Thereafter the game belonged to Hawick as Gary Munro finished off a forward drive before Buckley grabbed his second score after a surging run from the impressive Dalton Redpath – Weir succeeding with both conversion kicks.
Coach Graeme Young said: “We came here knowing that it would be a hard game. Hawick had their backs against the wall so we knew they would come out fighting.
“They showed us that. The story of our day was that we didn’t win enough quality ball from the setpiece, from our scrum, from our line-out, so we didn’t have an attacking platform. That put us under pressure.
“When we had the ball for any length of time we showed how dangerous we can be in attack. We just didn’t have enough of that. That played into Hawick’s hands. The game was played narrow. But the bottom line was that we didn’t have quality ball and that starts at the scrum and line-out.
“We had a couple of chances and we took them. They had a lot of energy and gave it everything they had.”
Young has not ruled out securing a top four spot yet. He added: “What the result against Hawick does is accentuates the next few matches. We’ve got two more games before Christmas so we need to regroup. We need to put energy into our training to give us a platform to play.
“We’ve got work to do. We’ve got Boroughmuir and Watsonians before Christmas. They’ll not be easy games. But, in fact, all the games in this league are really competitive. On their day any team can beat any other.”
The John Graham Metals man of the match was Ross Curle.
Report courtesy of theoffsideline.