​Hawick on a roll after sixth win on spin in rugby's Scottish Premiership, reckons head coach Matty Douglas

​The Greens’ 45-33 victory over the Edinburgh side at Mansfield Park, their fourth bonus-point win of this campaign, takes their tally to 32 points from eight fixtures, keeping them in second place.

It also opens up a six-point gap between them and Heriot’s, occupying third place and only two points behind them at kick-off but now down to fourth, having been overtaken by Currie Chieftains, 48-13 victors hosting Kelso at the weekend.

Hawick head coach Matty Douglas was glad to see his side keep up their winning ways and is hoping they can maintain that momentum at home to Selkirk this coming Saturday.

The corresponding fixture last season, a 20-20 draw last August, marked the start of a 26-match unbeaten run for the Greens spanning a year and a half and Douglas reckons his side are now back on a roll after seeing that undefeated streak ended at Marr in September.

“Heriot’s were in third place so it looked like a must-win for us, and to get five points was really good,” he said.

“For us, to concede 33 points was a bit frustrating after kind of switching off for the last 15 minutes but, on the whole, it was a good performance.

“That’s us won our last six so we’re starting to get on a bit of a roll and I’m really pleased about that.”

Connor Sutherland, Jae Linton, Kirk Ford, Owain Gray, Andrew Mitchell and Morgan Tait scored the hosts’ tries, with Ford converting all six and also kicking a penalty.

Touching down for Heriot’s were Paul Christie at the double, Kenta Kutsuna, Peter Burns and Danny Dineen, with Kutsuna adding four conversions.

Hawick were 38-14 ahead at one point but allowed Heriot’s to narrow that gap to ten points later on, though they ended the game a dozen in front, and Douglas wasn’t happy about his side letting their opponents get back into the match, saying: “We got in front but our game management probably wasn’t great.

“Our kicking game in particular wasn’t where it needed to be. We kicked loosely and they took the opportunities that gave them, so credit to them.”

This weekend’s visit by Selkirk for a premiership and Border League double-header kicking off at 3pm will see Douglas going up against Selkirk gaffer Gordon Henderson, a former coach of his at Hawick, and that’s a challenge he’s looking forward to, he says.

“Looking at the table, we’ll go into it as favourites and I think we need to try to get rid of some of our frustraion from last week,” he said.

“I think in every game I’ve been involved with against Selkirk over the past three years, there’s been no more than five points in it so there’s a fair chance it’ll be another close one.

“It’ll be a tough game and Selkirk will be looking to bounce back after getting beaten by Accies last week.

“For us, it’s just about preparing ourselves and hitting a bit of form going into the last half of the season.

“We’ll prepare the same as we always do but we’ll hope to make more of our opportunities at the weekend.”