Heriot’s survive Hawick scare to book final place
● Goal-kicking proves the difference as city favourites are taken to the wire
Heriot’s got one almighty fright before tip-toeing almost apologetically into the Scottish Cup final where they will play Ayr later this month having already booked their place in the Tennent’s Premiership play-off grand final, also against Ayr.
But the blue and white Super 6 franchise almost blew it big time against a home-grown Hawick side who came within an ace of upsetting the odds.
Hawick endured a pretty miserable season, finishing second bottom of the Premiership, but at the weekend coach George Graham was able to say: “I am so proud of what we have achieved out there. We got beaten but we played some really good rugby and we have to learn from that. They just didn’t get over the line but I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
It turned out to be anything but straightforward for Heriot’s as the Borderers found previously untapped reserves of energy and levels of skill that pushed them to the limit and had them desperately defending a two-point lead in the final quarter.
Despite racing into an early 14-point lead, Heriot’s were knocked off their stride when Hawick came roaring back and never looked comfortable for the rest of the game.
The teams shared eight tries in a game where the advantage swung back and forward, with Hawick seeming to be continually on the front foot and Heriot’s scrambling to contain them. Scorers for Heriot’s were Bobby Kay, Jack Blain twice and prop Josh Scott on the end of an unstoppable rolling maul.
For Hawick there were two apiece for winger Keith Davies and hooker Matt Carryer. In the end, it came down to place kicking and there Heriot’s had the edge with the reliable boot of Ross Jones never missing an opportunity and providing 11 points to nudge his team to victory.
Stand-off Lee Armstrong was Hawick’s kicker and a single missed conversion of Davies third try wide on the left was the difference between the teams. Armstrong also had a late chance to win the game with a long-range penalty that slid agonisingly past the top of the post.
Heriot’s coach Phil Smith, who takes his team to Millbrae for the grand play-off final this Saturday, said: “I thought Hawick were excellent the way they played and put us under pressure. There are some games when you have to dog it out. We showed a bit of dog and sometimes you have to do that. The error count was high and that was disappointing because I thought, ball in hand, we looked pretty threatening. We just need to be a bit more clinical and lose the errors.”