Cairns needs Currie to take chances
Currie will have a crack at filling the fourth and final playoff place at the end of the regular season when they play Boroughmuir in a re-arranged fixture next month.
It won’t be winner-takes-all because a simple win is not enough for Currie. They need to score four tries for a bonuspoint win or defending champions Heriot’s slip in above them after getting their own bonus point victory at Stirling at the weekend. Lose, and Currie’s season is over.
Currie coach Ben Cairns, pictured, said: “We will approach the Boroughmuir game the same way we approached this one. For the team it is about performance and playing the way we have played all season. If we do that then the tries should follow.
“Today, I thought we could have had a bonus point the amount of chances we let go. I always thought we were on top we just didn’t take our chances. Ialwaysgetabitworried when you have real dominance and it doesn’t show on the scoreboard.”
Cairns had no need to worry. Hawks, who were already guaranteed the third play-off place, put up stubborn resistance but were eventually worn down, stumbling to their second defeat in a row after being hammered by Ayr the previous week.
It was 5-5 at half-time after full-backs Harvey Elms and Sean Yacoubian crossed for their respective teams. In the second 40 Currie stand-off Jamie Forbes kicked a couple of penalties to stretch away followed by a couple of tries by Robbie Nelson and Ben Robbins, the last beyond 80 minutes with no time to go for a fourth that would have brought the bonus.
Itwasadourstruggle.hawks were mainly about defence and used up all their attacking ideas in the first half.
The centre pairing of Paddy Kelly and Jack Steele made 50 metres with an interchange of passes but the final pass to go wide was intercepted by Currie’s Ratu Tagire.
Glasgow stand-off Hagen Schulte missed two longrange penalty attempts from just inside his opponents’ half in the space of two minutes. In another breakout Kelly was flying in at the corner when Currie captain Ross Weston hit him with a try-saving tackle.
Hawks full-back Sean Yacoubian did score to square the game at halftime, but after that Currie assumed control and went on to win comfortably even if the points did come late.
Hawks coach Finlay Gillies said: “It was really disappointing. I have to look at myself. Maybe the preparation wasn’t ideal and we took our foot of the gas because we had third place assured. It would have been different if we had to come here and win.”
Hawks still have plenty of rugby to play this season and are tilting at both the Premiership title and the BT Cup. “We now need to reboot our season,” Gillies said.“we have to work extremely hard.”
0 Tempers flare at Malleny Park as Currie’s Mike Vernal has a disagreement with Glasgow Hawks’ Andrew Kirkland. Now it’s a waiting game for Heriot’s. The men from Goldenacre face a nail-biting three weeks or so to find out if their comprehensive victory is enough to secure a top-four finish, writes Martin Laing.
There was a palpable sense of satisfaction about head coach Phil Smith at the end of this encounter but he must wait for the outcome of Boroughmuir v Currie on 11 March to learn his team’s fate as the latter could still leapfrog Heriot’s for the coveted play-off slot.
“We wanted to win with a bonus point to apply pressure and we did that but now we have to wait,” Smith said.
“We needed a bonus-point win and we got it, though we left it until the last minute. I felt we deserved it as we were pretty much in control throughout the game. County were never really in our half much. But five points at Bridgehaugh in our last game of the season is great.”
Smith’s team were always ahead, first breaching the Stirling defence in the 11th minute when Solomoni Junior Rasolea dodged through for a try that Tom Wilson converted.
Jonny Hope reduced the deficit with a penalty six minutes later but Wilson cancelled that with a similar kick shortly afterwards.
County then got within touching distance when Logan Trotter sprinted home from nearly halfway but on the stroke of half-time Heriot’s pulled away again when referee Keith Allen awarded a penalty try after Stirling infringed as the visiting pack drove over the home line, Wilson adding the extras.
Wilson then scampered over for a try of his own, which he duly converted, to give Heriot’s breathing space but Stirlingcamebackyetagainwhen a drive by the forwards saw Mike Macdonald barrel over for an unconverted score.
The contest was skewed late on when County’s replacement prop Craig Black was sin-binned following a series of infringements in scrums on the home line, and then No 8 Ruaridh Leishman was yellow carded minutes later.
Being reduced to 13 players was always going to take its toll on County and the bonuspoint try for Heriot’s arrived when Charlie Simpson ran in at the corner in injury time.
Despite the defeat, results elsewhere mean Stirling are safe from the relegation playoffs, though they would like to end the season on a high with victory over Melrose in their final fixture on 11 March.
County’s head coach David Adamson said: “We always knew it was going to be hard, given that we had four guys away with the Scotland under-20s, so we’re not too despondent. We’re about producing good young players from our academy and we gave a few a run out.”