RIVALS SHOULD PAY ATTENTION

Hawick know many tough assignmets lie ahead '“ but after their season's best result on Saturday, they hope other Premiership opposition will be taking note .
Second-row forward Daniel Suddon in possession for Hawick against Stirling County (picture by Steve Cox).Second-row forward Daniel Suddon in possession for Hawick against Stirling County (picture by Steve Cox).
Second-row forward Daniel Suddon in possession for Hawick against Stirling County (picture by Steve Cox).

The Robbie Dyes defeated Stirling County 35-15 at Mansfield Park , with a rich blend of youth and experience – most notably in the form of veteran Lee Armstrong – carving out the path to victory.

Head coach George Graham was extremely pleased with the reaction of his players following the hugely disappointing performance the previous week at Ayr.

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However, he knows it will be a very difficult 80 minutes tomorrow (Saturday) at Goldenacre against Heriot’s – who staged a formidable fightback last weekend to win their match.

“Tomorrow will be very tough – it’s never an easy game and we do not have a good track record up there over the past couple of seasons,” said Graham.

“But it’s like everything else – we will focus on what we are doing and try and make sure we do execute the things we practise.

“If we can defend as well as we defended at the weekend, who knows what will happen?

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“But we are not stupid – Heriot’s are a very big, strong side so we will have to pull something serious out of the bag to try and get a win up there.”

Heriot’s were 24-3 down by half time last Saturday at Meggetland but put 28 points past hosts Boroughmuir, without response, to win 31-24.

However, they will be aware of the quality of Hawick’s performance against County and know that Graham’s troops are finding some form.

The coach suspected some teams may previously have thought that, because the Robbie Dyes were bottom of the table for a while, they were beaten before they actually got on the field.

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“I think we showed we are a force to be reckoned with when we do get our practices right ,” he said. “They should maybe sit up and think about that.”

Of the Stirling County game, he said: “I made it very clear we were looking for a performance – and that’s what we got.

“Normally, when you have a performance, the result will take care of itself.

“It doesn’t always happen that way but it happened that way on Saturday.

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“I thought the boys trained really hard through the week and they did the things on the field that we did in training, and it worked very well.

“So, in that context, it was very satisfying to see them doing the things we practised and get the result we thoroughly deserved.”

Honesty, said Graham, had a lot to do with the resurgence shown by the players.

“We had a very honest chat,” he said.” We were fed up practising the same things over and over and not seeing the transference on the field.

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“We were saying ‘we have to start doing this or we will struggle to pick up a win’. We we were very honest with each other and we knew the confidence was there.

“The only way we can get confidence is by doing these things. They all went and did the right things.

“I point them in the right direction and they follow that.

“Everybody played well at at the weekend.”