Coach of the Year Smith says Heriot’s have heart for final

PHIL SMITH believes his Heriot’s team can take confidence from their victories in two recent semi-finals and go out and enjoy themselves in this afternoon’s BT Cup final at Murrayfield.

The Edinburgh club meet Melrose in the final, having progressed from their semi-final against Glasgow Hawks on the away-team rule after drawing 10-10. Next week they face Ayr in the Premiership final thanks to a last-minute drop-goal that gave them a 24-22 win over Currie.

In both games, Heriot’s displayed a composure that is more usually the mark of a professional team, and Smith, last season’s Coach of the Year, is sure that quality will again stand his team in good stead today. “I hope the players are feeling like me – just relieved to get through them,” he said of those semifinals. “They were two very close matches, and in some ways I feel like they’ve done a lot of the hard stuff and now they can just roll on and concentrate on two finals.

“Okay, we want to win, but I want them to try and enjoy the two occasions. They will be different occasions, but two hopefully hugely rewarding ones.

“There are a couple of guys we’ll need to keep calm, but I hope the occasion doesn’t overawe them. A couple of years ago we played in the final at Clyde [and beat Hawks], and actually played really well that day. It was great and I want the guys to do the same at Murrayfield – play to their abilities and we’ll be in for a cracking game, I’m sure.”

Heriot’s rode their luck against Currie, whose scrum-half, Richard Snedden, kicked the ball out of play with ten seconds to go, having thought the referee had called time. But, as Smith explained, his team still had a lot to do after that error – and they did it to perfection, with Gregor McNeish applying the coup de grace.

“Everyone seems to be focused on Richard Snedden kicking the ball out, but what they forget is that we had to win the lineout, drive the lineout, manipulate the ball into midfield and set up Gregor to kick the ball over the bar – which is quite a lot of things to do.

“We did it really well. While in the game over in Glasgow [against Hawks], I wouldn’t say we ran the clock out in extra time, but certainly we kept the ball much better than we had in the 80 minutes, and it looked like we had the composure to get through after 100 minutes.”

Melrose have had a more mixed build-up to this afternoon’s match, having beat Ayr in the cup semi-final but then lost to the same opponents at the penultimate stage of the Premiership play-offs. Their coach, John Dalziel, believes that his players will not be

There are a couple of guys we’ll need to keep calm, but I hope the occasion doesn’t overawe them. We’ll be in for a cracking game