Another final countdown under way for Hawick after win against Glasgow Hawks

The Greens have now got silverware success at the double in their sights after beating Glasgow Hawks 32-16 away in their Scottish cup semi-final at Hillhead Jordanhill’s Hughenden home ground on Saturday.

That sets up a final at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, May 6, with kick-off at 6pm, against Marr, the Troon team having beaten Ayr 25-10 away in their semi at the weekend.

It also extends Hawick’s unbeaten run to 24 games in all competitions, including 22 victories on the bounce.

They had to come from behind three times to keep that winning run up in Glasgow, though, as their hosts fought back from being 12-11 down at the interval to go 16-12 up not long into the second half.

The Borderers’ tries were scored by Fraser Renwick, Andrew Mitchell, Nicky Little, Matt Carryer and Ethan Reilly, with Kirk Ford adding two conversions and a penalty.

Touching down for their hosts were Ryan Flett and Andy McLean, with the latter also kicking two penalties.

Hawick head coach Matty Douglas is now hoping to oversee their first premiership and cup double since 2002, though to pull that off, they’ll have to get the better of the last side to beat them, their South Ayrshire opponents having knocked them out of 2022’s play-off semi-finals with a 17-10 win last March before going on to win 2022’s title against Currie the month after.

The two sides have met three times since, however, with all those games going the Greens’ way – by 18-6 at home in last month’s play-off semis and 29-10 away in January and 20-3 in October at Mansfield Park in the league.

Douglas – a veteran of Hawick’s most recent cup final, a 55-17 defeat by Boroughmuir in 2015, as a player – said: “It’s a fantastic achievement for these players to get to Murrayfield.

“We’ve had some tough games to get there and we’re really looking forward to it.

“I played in the last cup final so I know what it’s like as day out and it’s fantastic.

“The town’s been right behind us and I think we’ll get a decent support there.

“It’s a big occasion, but our boys have dealt with a premiership final and that was a massive occasion at home and I think they’ll be excited for this.

“The big thing for us is that nothing changes. We’ve just got to do what we’ve done all season.”

Looking back at Saturday’s semi-final success, he added: “It was a tough game.

“We made a slow start in the first half but I was really pleased with the second half and I think our class showed in the last 20 minutes, though there are a lot of things to work on.

“We did things right in the first half. It’s just that we weren’t accurate enough, and credit to Hawks, they played really well and at a high tempo.

“Our chat at half-time was just about staying in the game and we had the wind at our backs in the second half.

“Our game management was a lot better and we played in the right areas, then in the last 15 minutes we really put them to the sword.”