Win secures home advantage in rugby’s Tennent’s Premiership play-offs for Hawick

The Greens’ comeback from being 12-7 down at one point to win 27-12 at Edinburgh’s Goldenacre leaves them with 71 points from 16 games, eight points clear of second-placed Currie Chieftains and 15 ahead of third-placed Edinburgh Academical.

With only two matches left to play – at home to Glasgow Hutchesons’ Aloysians on Saturday, February 18, and away to Glasgow Hawks on Saturday, February 25, both 3pm kick-offs – top spot looks to be Hawick’s to lose but head coach Matty Douglas isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Obviously it’ll be a tough task, but I think with the way we’re playing and the attitude we’ve got, if we get everything right, then hopefully we’ll be on the right end of results,” he said. “There’s a lot still to play for but we take it one game at a time.

“I think we’re in the right frame of mind, to be fair, going into these last games.”

His side will be looking to the double against their remaining regular-season opponents, having beaten GHA 41-24 away at the start of October and Hawks 29-12 at Mansfield Park later that month.

Hawick have got a 100% record on the road this season, as well as being unbeaten all campaign long, but Douglas says they’re still glad of having secured home advantage for their play-off semi-final.

“A big thing for us this season was to win away from home against the better sides in the league, and we’ve done that, but a home semi-final is still massive for us,” he said. “It’s knockout rugby and we could do with that advantage.

“You need to perform on the day, but if you finish first in the league, it gives you a bit of an incentive in that if you win your semi-final, then you’ve got a home final at Mansfield. That’s been a massive driver for us, especially over the last month or so.

“To be fair, I didn’t expect for us to be still unbeaten at this stage, but we probably deserve to be with some of the performances we’ve been putting in.”

Hawick’s try-scorers against Heriot’s, securing a winning double against the capital outfit after getting the better of them at home by 52-21 in September, were Lewis Ferguson at the double and Shaun Fairbairn, with Kirk Ford adding three conversions and two penalties to take his points tally for the season to 123, second only to the 126 kicked by Marr’s Colin Sturgeon.

Touching down for their hosts – sent to the foot of the table by that defeat but only a point behind both second-bottom Musselburgh and third-from-bottom GHA and with a game in hand on both – were Ross McKnight and Sam Wallace, with Graham Wilson converting the latter.

Next up for Hawick is a break from the league in the form of a Borders derby in rugby’s Scottish cup, making a comeback after four years off. They host Jed-Forest this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 1.30pm.

They go into that first-round tie looking for their third win of this season against their Jedburgh neighbours, having beaten them twice in the league, 26-7 at home in November and 22-12 away in September.