Hawick facing Tennent's Premiership table-toppers for second week on trot after toppling Marr

The Greens look to be mounting a title challenge themselves now after getting the better of the previous league leaders at their Mansfield Park home ground on Saturday.

That 26-19 victory against the South Ayrshire side, now in second place, sees Hawick sitting third with 32 points from nine games ahead of a trip to Edinburgh this Saturday to take on new table-toppers Currie, only three points ahead of the Borderers but with a game in hand.

Hawick have already beaten Currie once this season, 25-20 at home on its opening day at the start of September, so they’ll be hoping they can maintain a recent upturn in their form on the road to keep up their challenge for top spot.

That game kicks off at Malleny Park in Balerno at 2.30pm.

“That was great. We were very accurate in the first half and we scored a couple of good tries,” Matty Douglas, the hosts’ head coach, told Borders Rugby TV.

“We knew that Marr would come out in the second half, and they did, but we dealt with that.

“There’s a squad in there that’s played for the jersey today and I couldn’t be any happier with the commitment they’ve put in to get that result.

“We’ve got four points and we’ve taken the scalps of Currie and Marr in the first half of the season, so I’m really pleased.”

Hawick’s tries were scored by Morgan Tait, Stuart Graham and Ronan McKean, with Kirk Ford adding a conversion and three penalties.

On the scoresheet for their visitors from Troon were Jamie Shedden, Conor Bickerstaff and Mackenzie Pearce with tries and Calum Inglis with two conversions.

It was neck and neck for most of the 80 minutes and Hawick were hanging on in the end but stood firm to claim victory after going in at the break 21-12 up following a ding-dong first half, and they kept their noses ahead after the interval despite their lead being reduced to two points at one stage and Marr all but laying siege to the hosts’ line as the final whistle approached.