Hawick to play host to Currie Chieftains in rugby’s 2024 Scottish cup semi-finals

​The Greens earned their place in the semi-finals with a 36-0 win away to Scottish National League Division 1 side Dundee on Saturday and they’ve been drawn at home to Edinburgh’s Currie Chieftains in the next round.

That tie takes place on Saturday, April 13, with kick-off at Mansfield Park at 3pm and a place in the final at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday, April 27, at stake.

Currie secured their place in the semis by handing out an 83-14 thumping to Musselburgh away on Saturday, with Marr going through at the same time by seeing off Watsonians 38-10 at home.

One quarter-final is still to be played and it will see Edinburgh Academical at home to Heriot’s Blues on April 13 for the right to host Marr in the semis on Saturday, April 20.

Tighthead prop Ross Graham scored two tries for head coach Matty Douglas’s Greens at Dundee’s Mayfield Sports Centre, with scrum-half Gareth Welsh, flanker Calum Renwick and centre Andrew Mitchell also touching down, a penalty try being awarded their way and full-back Kirk Ford kicking two conversions.

Their semi-final will be one of four turns at hosting Currie in the space of 13 months, following a 21-18 Scottish Premiership play-off final win last March and 35-13 win in the league in September, with this year’s play-off final to follow on a date yet to be fixed but tipped to be Saturday, May 4.

Hawick go into that last-four tie looking to defend a trophy they won for the third time with a 31-13 victory in the capital against Marr last May for a league and cup double.

Looking back over Saturday’s quarter-final win, Douglas told us: “It was a good Saturday out, to be fair.

“Dundee played well in spells and put us under a bit of pressure, but on the day we were probably the better side and that got us through.”

The Borderers fielded more or less a full-strength side against their lower-league opponents in a bid to keep players match-fit after two weeks off and ahead of further time out for those of them not in Douglas’s South of Scotland squad for the upcoming national inter-district championship.

“We had to really given how disjointed the end of the season is,” said Douglas.

“We’ve got to keep building performances but we’ve not got a lot of games in the next three weeks.

“It was just about keeping the boys playing together ahead of the inter-districts starting this week with a chunk of them away and then we’re into a cup semi-final.

“It’s going to be tough but we’ve worked hard to get to this stage of the season so we’ve got to do our best to be ready for it.”

The 28-year-old is glad to have home advantage against Currie again, saying: “It’s good to be at home again for our semi-final.

“We’ve only had one game at home since the start of December, so that’s been far from ideal, but it’s good to be back in the semi-finals and hopefully that’ll be of benefit to us.

“Currie are a tough side to play and we’ve got them in the premiership final again so it’ll be kind of a dress rehearsal for what’s to come, but we’re looking to make another Scottish cup final and we’ll be preparing as well as we can.”