Borders school players are different class!

Hawick High/Jed Grammar 17
Centres of excellence - while the players in other positions are pretty good too ... the combined Jed Grammar and Hawick High squad.Centres of excellence - while the players in other positions are pretty good too ... the combined Jed Grammar and Hawick High squad.
Centres of excellence - while the players in other positions are pretty good too ... the combined Jed Grammar and Hawick High squad.

Hutchesons’ Grammar 12

On a marvellous day for youth rugby in the Borders, the 2019 U18 Schools Bowl Final in Edinburgh displayed school rugby at its best.

That was the verdict of Scottish Rugby after the meeting of a combined Hawick High/Jed Grammar and Glasgow side Hutchesons’ Grammar.

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Momentum swung back and forth at the Oriam Performance Centre but the Borders side held on to lift the bowl.

Hawick High School U16s and Earlston High School U18s also won their respective finals, making it a day to treasure.

The first score of the U18 Bowl final came through a good bit of anticipation by the Hutchesons’ captain as he intercepted on the halfway line to run in under the posts.

Gregor Adams made no mistake with the conversion under the sticks.

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The combined side then came back into the contest, initially set up by a clever kick down the line by Lewis Smith, before man of the match Elliot Stanger dotted down to put their first points on the board.

They soon pushed further ahead through Stephen Cook but it was far from conventional.

A sweeping move found the willing prop out on the wing before he easily passed a defender and sprinted down the line to score. The conversion was missed from left of the posts, as the combined side led at 10-5 at half-time.

Hawick/Jed opened the scoring in the second half – it came after an attempted chip into space in their own 22 by Hutchesons’ found the hands of Elliott Stanger, who made the most of the space created by the broken play and darted in to give Lewis Smith an easy conversion attempt, which he duly slotted.

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Hutchesons’ bounced back, however, as full-back Steven Slater finished off in the corner to give his side renewed hope. The conversion attempt fell just short, with the score now 17-12.

Combined captain Ben Scott was shown a yellow card as his side had to withstand relentless pressure in the final few minutes of the match.