Hills gain revenge to give coach big send-off

Watsonians 5 Hillhead Jordanhill 10

REVENGE was a dish best served cold for Hillhead Jordanhill, who bounced back from a 67- 0 thrashing to Watsonians in the Scottish Women’s Premiership final in January to claim a narrow win over the same opposition in the denouement of the Sarah Beaney Cup on the international pitch at Murrayfield yesterday evening.

The eventual winners – who were bolstered by the return of their Scotland internationals – flew out of the traps with an early Amanda Jane penalty, but Watsonians bounced back through a Bryony Nelson try to take a 5- 3 lead with just 10 minutes played.

There was no more scoring until the 66th minute when Lucy Mills sent Jane in for the game’s decisive try, and the full- back kept her cool to convert and make it 10- 5.

“I am so, so proud of this bunch of players, they just gave me everything in this game,” said victorious head coach Aird Jardine, after his last game in charge of the Hughenden outfit.

“We were comprehensively beaten by Watsonians in the Premiership final a few months ago, and then lost our first cup game to Heriot’s in the pool stage, so there was a lot of soul searching after those two games.

“As a group, we came together and worked very hard on our game play, but more importantly we worked on the mental side of the game and the team spirit since then has been amazing.

“In this game Watsonians threw everything at us, but all the players put their bodies on the line, and it was a special day and a really nice way for me to sign off.”

Earlier, Biggar ran out 36- 22 winners over Biggar in the National Plate Final, while Cartha Claymores took home the National Bowl trophy after a 29- 22 win over Greenock.