Gala up for rugby’s Scottish cup but Hawick reject chance to vie for record fifth win

The most recent of those back-to-back wins, secured by beating Edinburgh Academical 32-29 at the capital’s Murrayfield Stadium in last April’s final, was their fourth, a record held jointly with Melrose, Boroughmuir, Heriot’s and Ayr.

Head coach Graham Hogg’s Greens have opted against vying to claim that record outright this season, though, to focus on finishing as high up the Arnold Clark Premiership table as they can manage.

They’re among 15 of the 22 teams eligible boycotting 2025’s cup, five fellow Borders teams among them – Selkirk, Melrose, Kelso, Jed-Forest and Peebles.

This year’s field of seven is the smallest ever to contest the cup, less than a third of those eligible to take part, and the first not to feature any full-strength top-flight teams, calling the credibility of the competition into question and sparking suggestions that it should have been put on hold for a year, as it was from 2019 to 2022, because the premiership reverting to a ten-team format next season will make scheduling fixtures easier than it is with the current dozen.

The only Borderers contesting this year’s controversial slimmed-down incarnation of the cup, the 27th to be played since its launch in 1995, are Gala and they’ve been drawn away to Heriot’s in its quarter-finals on Saturday, March 22, three weeks on from concluding their current Arnold Clark National League Division 1 campaign at home to Glasgow Academicals this coming Saturday, both 3pm kick-offs.

After that, they’ve only got two Border League fixtures left to play, one away to Selkirk on Friday, March 7, at 7.30pm and another at Hawick yet to be arranged.

Head coach Ewen Robbie’s Gala are one of five National 1 sides up for the cup, along with two premiership clubs but those top-flight teams will be fielding under-23 squads rather than their first XVs as a full league fixture card is lined up for the 22nd and two games are scheduled for Saturday, April 5, also a cup calendar date.

The 22nd’s quarter-finals will also see Dundee hosting Ayr and Glasgow Academicals at home to Highland, with National 1 table-toppers Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians having been given a bye to the last four.

Stirling County and Biggar were initially up for joining in too but have since pulled out.

Explaining his club’s decision to contest the cup this time round after giving it a miss in 2024 along with Melrose, Jed-Forest, Kelso and Selkirk, Ewen Swinton, the Maroons’ director of rugby, told Borders Rugby TV: “The Scottish cup question arose last autumn when all 22 clubs in National 1 and the premiership were approached by the Scottish Rugby Union to ask whether there was an interest in participating and we decided it was something we should check out with our players and coaches, given that we had boycotted the tournament last year, along with the bulk of the Borders’ teams, so we put a poll out and it came back with a positive.

“We responded to the SRU that we would consider participating in the cup provided it didn’t clash with any Border League games.

“Part of our rationale was that our league season was due to end at that point on February 8 and after that we only had one Border League match scheduled, so there was huge amount of downtime for our players and that influenced the thought process at Gala.

“It’s fair to say that one or two clubs were surprised that we had put our hand up for it but we did emphasise at that point that the Border League was to come first and that’s very much our stance.”

Hawick’s prior cup wins were in 2023, 2002 and 1996 and Melrose won 2018, 2017, 2008 and 1997’s. Gala are the only other Borderers to have won it and they’ve done so twice, in 2012 and 1999.

The only other Borderers to make it to the cup’s final are Kelso, beaten 36-14 by Glasgow Hawks in 1998 and 8-3 by Gala the year after, the only all-Borders final in the near-30-year history of the competition.

The Greens are at Melrose for a premiership derby on March 22, with Selkirk hosting Musselburgh and Kelso at home to Currie Chieftains at the same time, all 3pm kick-offs, as well as Heriot’s first XV being away to Ayr’s.

April 5, the only other cup date fixed as yet, will see Hawick away to Marr and Selkirk at Glasgow Hawks in the premiership, both also at 3pm.

Gala’s last cup campaign didn’t go beyond its first round as they were knocked out at that stage by Glasgow Hawks, losing 26-23 at home at Netherdale in February 2023.