Hawick outmuscled at Murrayfield

BT Cup Final

Hundreds of Hawick supporters left Murrayfield brokenhearted this evening after watching their team being mauled by a Boroughmuir side hungry for a BT Cup victory following a disappointing season.

Nikki Walker’s men were never really in the hunt, although their determination when defending in their own 22 for the majority of the second half was hugely commendable.

The capital outfit showed their intentions from the off, forcing their way down to within metres of the Hawick try line in the opening minute and then a mighty push sending Johnny Adams over for the first try with Carl Bezuidenhout making the conversion.

The same man slotted a penalty minutes later and still the Muir men came. They didn’t reckon on their opponents having an entire saxhorn band in their defence though. The minute the strains of Up Wi the Banner were heard coming from the packed stand the Hawick men on the field began to fight back, Boroughmuir had once again been heading for the line, and the danger was cleared.

Ten minutes later the Border Queen was the chosen tune and once again Hawick reacted, earning themselves a penalty which was duly slotted by Lee Armstrong to put the first points on the board for the Greens.

Boroughmuir bounced back however and Magnus Bradbury was next to cross the whitewash with Grant McConnell adding another minutes later and Bradbury scoring number four a similar time span later, Bezuidenhout converting two.

The hundreds of Hawick supporters who had travelled up the A7 on mass earlier in the day had reasons to be cheerful as the half moved into it’s last 10 minutes. Scott McLeod touched down following a stylish solo run from the Boroughmuir 22 and Lee Armstrong’s conversion closed the gap slightly more.

Just as things were beginning to look up however Muir took control again and following a spell of desperate tryline defending from the Greens the power of the city pack prevailed and prop Simon Berghan crashed over to score, Bezuidenhout once again adding the extras to take a half-time lead of 36-10.

It was to a mighty cheer that Hawick returned to the pitch for the second half as the travelling green clad support tried to pick their team up.

Once again they defended like demons and it took Boroughmuir until 20 minutes into the half to score again, Mike Entwhistle going over in the corner with Bezuidenhout converting.

Reknowned throughout the land for their never-say-die approach Hawick, now trailing 43-10, gave their support one last loyalty reward with a rare attack into Muir territory and, after a couple of close calls, substitute Lindsey Gibson crossed the tryline to score with Armstrong converting.

As had been the case all day though Hawick’s opposition reacted in kind and then some and, in the space of three minutes had grabbed back 12 points with tries from Iain Moody and Sep Visser and a conversion from Bezuidenhout.

Hawick: L. Armstrong; D. Graham, N. Walker, J. Coutts, S. McLeod; R. Hutton, G. Cottrel; S. Muir, R. Graham, M. Landels, M. Robertson, M. McKee, N. Mactaggart, B. McNeil, R. Scott. Subs: L. Gibson, N. McLennan, W. Blacklock, R. Gibson, K. Davies, S. Goodfellow, M. Douglas.