Hawick claim third home victory in a row in Tennent's Premiership and now hoping for first away win

Hawick's Bailey Donaldson making a tackle against Glasgow Hawks, with Logan Gordon-Wooley supporting (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

Selkirk and Jed-Forest both lost away on Saturday, the former 34-10 at Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians and the latter 28-19 at Marr.

Hawick are now the highest-placed of the region’s clubs, sitting fifth and level on 15 points with third-placed Glasgow Hawks and fourth-placed Musselburgh after five games.

Selkirk are third bottom of the 10-team table, with six points from three games, and second-bottom Jed-Forest are level on points with them, though they’ve played one game more.

Man-of-the-match Gareth Welsh on the ball for Hawick, with Stuart Graham in support, against Glasgow Hawks (Pic: Bill McBurnie)

Selkirk and Jed-Forest are both at home this coming Saturday, the Souters to Marr and their Jedburgh opposite numbers to Musselburgh.

Hawick are yet to win on their travels this season but Matty Douglas’s team will be hoping to get third time lucky at basement side Aberdeen Grammar.

All this weekend’s games kick off at 3pm.

Captain Matt Carryer scored Hawick’s only try against Hawks, with Kirk Ford contributing three first-half penalties, and he’s confident his side can now build on their unbeaten home form by ending their losing streak away.

Jed-Forest dealing with a Marr attack (Photo: Jon Pearce)

“We get an extra 15-20 per cent at home. I don’t know why, but we seem to get a lot more confidence playing at Mansfield,” he told Borders Rugby TV.

“It’s a big trip up there, but I’m confident again.

“We need to start picking points up on the road so I think Aberdeen’s a good place to start.”

Selkirk are also yet to win on the road, having been beaten by Hawick and now GHA, and their forwards coach, Darren Hoggan, is hoping for a reaction to that latest defeat.

“We simply weren’t at the races today, which is very disappointing,” he said after Saturday’s game.

“Full credit to GHA, who took their chances when they came, and capitalised on our mistakes.

“This has definitely been a wake-up call, and every Selkirk player needs to up his game.

“The squad know they’re not performing at the standards they set at the beginning of the season, so I’m expecting a far more committed attitude at training this week.”

Replacement loosehead prop Joseph Anderson scored Selkirk’s sole try at Braidholm, with stand-off Callum Anderson adding a conversion and a penalty.

Lewis Young scored a try for Jed-Forest in Troon, with Gary Munro contributing a conversion and four penalties, and he felt his team were unfortnate to return to the Borders from South Ayrshire empty-handed.

“We were very unlucky,” he said.

“We’ve been coming on leaps and bounds in the last few weeks, coming close to Glasgow Hawks at the Riverside and we got a win at Abderdeen last week.

“Even today, the performance out there from some of the young guys was unbelievable.

“We’ve shown a bit of doggedness, a bit of edge, a bit of depth as well, so we can take a lot from that today and have a bit of confidence going into our home game next week against Musselburgh. That’s a big game for us.