Hat-trick by Hawick’s Andrew Mitchell not enough to win cup for Scottish club rugby XV v Irish

Those five tries, all but one of them converted by Barbour’s Poynder Park teammate Dwain Patterson, were outdone by half a dozen scored by their hosts at Donnybrook, near Dublin, all converted by Conor Kelly.

Bobby Sheehan matched Mitchell’s tally of three and Adam Maher, Ronan Watters and Aran Egan all got on the scoresheet too to set up a 42-33 home win and keep the cup in Ireland for the third time on the trot following victories over two legs in 2019 and 2020.

Outside-centre Mitchell and fly-half Patterson were among six Borders players in head coach Bob McKillop’s starting line-up, accompanied by scrum-half Christie, originally from Peebles, and there were a further three on the bench, replacement left-winger Barbour among them.

The region’s other representatives in the visitors’ starting XV, captained by Ayr’s Blair Macpherson at No 8, were Selkirk’s Ben Pickles on the left wing, Hawick’s Fraser Renwick at hooker and Melrose’s Angus Runciman and Jack Dobie at lock and loosehead prop respectively.

Their fellow starters were Stirling County’s Glenn Bryce, Heriot’s Ruairidh Leishman and Struan Cessford and Macpherson’s Ayr teammates Jamie Shedden, Bobby Beattie, Oscar Baird and Tim Brown.

Barbour’s fellow Borderers on the substitutes’ bench were Kelso’s Dan Gamble and Souter Callum Anderson.

Gamble was first on, taking over from Cessford at tighthead prop at half-time, with Barbour following on 56 minutes, replacing Pickles, and Anderson on 66 for Bryce at full-back.

Also among the replacements were Heriot’s Elliot Young and Sam Wallace, Ayr’s Jamie Drummond, Stirling’s Ruaraidh Hart and Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians’ Euan McKirdy.

Mitchell, Patterson, Dobie and Runciman all saw out the full 80 minutes but Renwick, like Pickles, went off on 56, making way for Young, followed by Christie on 64 for McKirdy.

Mitchell, currently three clear at the top of the Arnold Clark Premiership’s try-scoring leaderboard with 16, is the only Borders veteran of the Scottish club XV’s last outing, with Melrose’s Scott Wight as head coach, for beatings by 39-17 at Netherdale in Galashiels in January 2020 and 22-17 at Donnybrook the month after, though Christie was also in that squad.

Cessford, Leishman and Macpherson weren’t that time round but they were selected for head coach Rob Chrystie’s squad a year prior, losing 23-9 in Galashiels then drawing 19-19 away in January 2019.

Hawick’s Chrystie was also in charge the last time Scotland won the cup, overseeing a 35-26 victory at Netherdale in March 2018 – thanks to five tries, including ones from Hawick’s Shawn Muir and Melrose’s Russell Anderson and Fraser Thomson, plus eight points kicked by Anderson and Thomson’s Greenyards teammate Craig Jackson – after losing 26-23 away two weeks previously.

Friday’s result keeps the Dalriada Cup – launched in 2011, five years on from the creation of a Scottish club XV in a bid to bridge the gap between amateur rugby and its then-new professional counterpart – the other side of the Irish Sea into an eighth year, with planning for a return match already under way.

Though disappointed not to have returned with silverware among their luggage, Heriot’s head coach McKillop, 58, was pleased by the account his travelling party gave of themselves against opposite number Adam Craig’s hosts, skippered by Jack Kelleher, telling the Offside Line rugby news website: “I’m really proud of the way the boys played.

“We had a 15-minute period just before half-time when we made a couple of mistakes and we had a couple of little bits of ill-discipline that gave them entries into our 22 and they took full advantage. They were very efficient in that gold zone.

“I’m really proud of the way the boys fought back.

“The overriding feeling from us is that we’re just gutted we don’t have another game. The guys have really enjoyed it. It has been a big occasion.

“We started at 100mph, which is what we wanted to do. There maybe were a couple of chances that we didn’t take, and they probably feel the same themselves.

“The boys really stuck in against a high-quality team. At half-time, we talked about rolling our sleeves up and getting stuck in, and that’s exactly what they did.

“It was a massive step up in pace from the premiership.”