Hawick hoping to defy Currie Chieftains and weather to claim rugby’s Tennent’s Premiership title at weekend

The Borderers had to huff and puff in their play-off semi-final at their Mansfield Park home ground on Saturday gone, only being 5-3 ahead by half-time and Marr, last season’s champions, getting back to within two points of them at 8-6 in the second half, before eventually blowing the South Ayrshire side’s house down and running out 18-6 winners.

Currie, on the other hand, made light work of their semi, seeing off capital rivals Edinburgh Academical 35-7 at their Malleny Park home ground in Balerno.

Douglas isn’t seeing how their respective semis went as any indication of how this weekend’s play-off final in Hawick will unfold and isn’t reading too much into his team’s home and away victories against Currie during the regular season, by 43-7 in mid-January and by 46-25 in October, either, however.

“We’re excited for it but we know how good a side Currie are,” he said.

“They really turned it on at the weekend in their semi-final, so we know what’s coming and, to be honest, I think they’ll be a bit better than the last time they were at Mansfield.

“This season we’ve put 40 points on them both times, home and away, so they’ll have a point to prove, but for us, nothing changes.

“We’re going to have to match Currie, but it’s a home final so I’ll be looking for a good performance.”

The current cold snap could also thwart Hawick’s hopes of claiming their first premiership title since 2002 this weekend, with up to 10cm snow forecast from Thursday through to Sunday and temperatures expected to drop as low as -4C overnight on Friday, but Douglas is optimistic that the show will go on.

“At the moment, we’re working extremely hard to make sure the game goes ahead by covering the pitch,” he said.

“If it doesn’t, it wouldn’t be played until April 22, we think. That would be a massive wait if it’s off this weekend, so we’re trying our hardest to make sure it goes ahead.”

Looking back over Saturday’s match, he added: “I was really, really pleased with how we played.

“I think defensively was where we won it.

“We were probably a bit nervy in the first half, I’d say, but on the whole it was a big performance and we deserved to win, and I was really pleased with that as Marr are a top-quality side and know how to win in big games.

“We had to work for the win. It was 5-3 at half-time and it was 8-6 for a good 15 minutes, so we had to work hard, but it never got to the stage where I thought we were going to concede a try.

“We just couldn’t quite get over the try-line earlier on, though we had a lot of possession and territory, but we just stuck at it and got our reward in the end, so I’m really happy as Marr made us battle all the way for it.”

Ronan McKean and Jae Linton scored Hawick’s tries on Saturday, with Kirk Ford adding two penalties and a conversion.

Two penalties kicked by Colin Sturgeon were their Troon opponents’ only contribution to the scoreline.