Head coach Graham ​Hogg hoping to get Hawick back on up away to Currie Chieftains

​The Greens got off to a losing opening, by 28-22, away to Edinburgh Academical at the end of August, got back to winning ways in emphatic style at home to Marr a week later, registering a 51-13 scoreline, but came a cropper at home to Heriot’s at Mansfield Park on Saturday, losing 39-19.

A visit to Currie Chieftains is next up this coming Saturday, with kick-off at Balerno’s Malleny Park at 3pm, and Hogg sees that as an opportunity knocking for last season’s table-toppers to get their hit-and-miss campaign back on track, as well as making amends for their 26-24 premiership play-off final loss to the Edinburgh outfit the last time they met, at home in May.

Fortune has favoured Currie even less than Hawick since then and they now find themselves winless at the bottom of the table, with three points from three fixtures, but Hogg isn’t letting that lowly league position blind him to the threat they’ll pose to his eighth-placed visitors, on six points from three games, this weekend.

“This new-look premiership is going to take more than just a couple of weeks to iron itself out and for teams to show their true colours,” said the 37-year-old.

“Currie are still a quality side and I’m sure they’ll be reeling from three losses on the bounce, but that probably makes them more dangerous leading into this weekend.

“We need to make sure we do all we can to look after ourselves and we’ll be concentrating on our game when we head up to Malleny on Saturday.”

Hogg’s also hoping for a reaction to Saturday’s loss to Heriot’s by seven tries to three, saying: “It certainly wasn’t the result we were looking for, especially at home.

“Heriot’s are a good side – we knew that – and they didn’t bring anything different on the day that we weren’t expecting. We just didn’t turn up, to be honest with you.

“These days happen unfortunately, but we’ve reviewed it this week and the boys have had some pretty frank conversations, which has been good, and they’ve been led by them, which is what we wanted, and we’re now looking forward to what’s happening this week – another tough task away to Currie.”

Hawick have now lost as many games this term as they did in the entirety of last season, play-off final included, but that’s not a cause for concern given the much-changed make-up of the premiership this time round, according to Hogg.

“We’re only three games into the season,” he said.

“There are certainly no panic stations as of yet.

“The boys and we coaches know what needs to be done and we’re just looking forward to getting the show back on the road this week.”

Hawick’s tries against Heriot’s were scored by left-winger Ronan McKean, loosehead prop captain Shawn Muir and replacement Sean Linton, with fly-half Kirk Ford and inside-centre Lee Armstrong converting one each.

Touching down for head coach Bob McKillop’s second-placed visitors from the capital – for their third win on the bounce, keeping them level with table-toppers Ayr on a 100% haul of 15 points – were centre Angus Hunter, winger Jack Blain and flanker Calum Shand all at the double, plus skipper Ruairidh Leishman, with stand-off Cammy Scott adding two conversions.