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It was perhaps fanciful to think it might
continue for the whole game, but after just four minutes of
today’s encounter Boroughmuir had notched two tries and ten
points and Hawick had barely known what him them. Inevitably
the scoring rate calmed down, and indeed Hawick had periods
in which they threatened to catapult themselves back into
the game, but ’Muir ended the match with seven tries and a
comfortable victory in the Hugh McMaster Trophy.
Hawick began the game nine points shy of
Boroughmuir’s total in the league campaign, knowing that a
victory at Meggetland would lift themselves well and truly
into contention for the crown. And having staged a
magnificent comeback to defeat Currie last week, they were
hardly lacking in confidence, but having the stuffing
knocked so firmly out of them so quickly after the start
showed them just what a task they faced.
Boroughmuir’s first try – scored by
indefatigable flanker Angus Martyn – came in the very first
moments of the game. After Barry Sutherland’s kick-off had
bounced into touch, Boroughmuir won the lineout and scrum
half Calum Cusiter launched a box-kick downfield. Hawick’s
full back, Neil Renwick, came across to claim the catch but
spilled it forward.
From the scrum, a textbook move down the
blindside saw Ben Fisher feed his back-row colleague Martyn,
who skipped round Renwick and touched down in the corner.
Elgan O’Donnell lined up the kick, but the Kiwi wasn’t at
his best in front of the posts, and would convert only one
of the tries scored during the match.
It was just as ’Muir fans were warning
themselves not to get carried away with the good start that
Tom Bury raced away to score his fourth try of the season.
From another scrum on the right, this time after Rory
Hutton’s pass had been knocked forward by Steven Anderson,
and also pretty deep inside the Boroughmuir half, ’Muir went
all the way into the corner once more. Cusiter surprised
everyone by breaking past Anderson down the blindside, and
when he found Bury in support sixty-metres from the line,
the winger had only Renwick to beat, which he did with
consummate ease and raced away into the corner.
Encouraged by their swashbuckling start,
Boroughmuir were getting a bit loose in their play, anxious
it seemed to try and run everything in and kill the game
before half-time. Slowly, however, they regained their
composure, O’Donnell extending the lead with a penalty
before Rory Couper weighed in with the first of what would
be four tries for the club captain.
After having camped themselves in the Hawick
twenty-two for a good five minutes, Ben Fisher battered his
way to within five metres of the line, and when the ball was
recycled, Cusiter threw a lovely long pass to Martyn, who
drew the defender before slipping a pass to Couper for the
winger to score.
Stephen Ruddick stepped in to attempt this
conversion but he too missed, and Hawick centre Craig Neish
narrowed the gap slightly when he pushed over a penalty to
finally get his side on the scoreboard. The Hawick pack were
struggling; however, to get their backs any quality ball,
and credit for that must go to their Boroughmuir
counterparts – in particular the front row of Nigel Drapper,
Sean Crombie and Freddie Lait – who gave an astonishingly
powerful performance as they dominated the forward battle.
Any thoughts that Boroughmuir were done for
the half with three tries were misplaced, and it was Martyn
– compensating for his lack of a score against Heriot’s last
week – who bagged the bonus point touchdown. After Ruddick
had boomed a clearance into touch on the halfway line,
Fergus Pringle rose high and mighty to steal the Hawick
lineout. The ball dropped to Martyn and he raced clear,
stepping inside Colin Murray and going over for the score.
No one should ever – especially after their
heroics last week – believe that a Hawick side will lie down
and take defeat though, and they began the second half with
a determination that thrust them onto the front foot.
Cheered on by a vociferous travelling support, Neish slotted
a second penalty, and he should have brought the gap down to
fourteen with the third, but his attempt was pushed wide.
Boroughmuir’s discipline was letting them down as Hawick
tried everything they could to find a score, but out of
almost nothing, it was the hosts who once again found the
try line.
With Matt Cannon unavailable for selection,
former Hawick player Greg Cottrell had taken over the
fly-half duties, and it was his invention that saw Couper
over for his second score. When Ruddick was trapped behind
the gain line just inside his own half, Cottrell turned
back-foot ball into attack with a lovely chip over the
rushing Hawick defence. Malcolm Clapperton gathered the ball
and found Martyn in support, the flanking making ground to
the Hawick twenty-two before Couper took his pass and
coasted in under the posts. O’Donnell successfully converted
to open up a twenty-four point gap.
Although there was still half an hour
remaining, ’Muir had almost put themselves out of sight,
something that they accomplished just three minutes later
when Couper went over for his hat-trick. After Olly Brown
had taken the ball into contact, Cusiter spun the ball out
to Couper, and from a standing start he burst through the
Hawick defence to ensure that he had doubled his try count
for the season in a single afternoon.
Hawick were now merely chasing any kind of
bonus point they could get their hands on, and they got
themselves a try with just over twenty minutes remaining. As
Boroughmuir gave away a string of penalties, Hawick moved
their way upfield, eventually going over in the left corner
through flanker Andy Wilson, a score which Neish converted.
In the aftermath of the try, and having been playing
advantage to the visiting side, the referee finally lost
patience and sent Angus Martyn to the sin-bin after he had
been caught coming in at the side of a ruck.
Hawick would have fancied their chances of
taking advantage of Martyn’s removal from the game, such
were the problems he had caused throughout, but instead it
was ’Muir who launched the offensive. Couper nearly claimed
his fourth when he got on the end of a break by the ever
more influential Cusiter, but found that space ran out
before the try line arrived, and then a deliberate knock on
prevented a near certain score, for which Hawick were lucky
to avoid a penalty try.
The best moment of all though came with ten
minutes left when Fergus Pringle collected from a loose
breakdown, and fearing he didn’t have the pace to reach the
line, chipped ahead. The lock set off after the kick
himself, and came within mere inches of beating Sutherland
to the ball and claiming what would have been a famous try.
Boroughmuir were to cross the line once more,
as time ticked down and with Martyn restored to the action,
Cusiter once again broke clear of the Hawick defence and
timed his pass to perfection, finding Couper just as the
defence was drawn away and the winger waltzed over for the
score. Ruddick again took up the kicking duties and missed,
but in the final shakedown it mattered little.
There was time enough for Hawick to get
themselves on the scoreboard again, when Ben Fisher had
seemingly won good turnover ball in their own twenty-two,
everyone left the ball to everyone else, and Hawick
substitute Kevin Reid pounced. He hacked the ball towards
the Boroughmuir line, and when Ruddick tugged him back, the
referee had no option but to go under the posts and award
the penalty try. Neish converted the score with the last
kick of the game.
There are perhaps getting fewer and fewer
ways to say this as Boroughmuir have beaten all-comers this
season, but once again it was an impressive victory against
a good side. Combined with the exiting backline that ’Muir
have always had, the forward pack are this season stepping
up to the physical challenge, and more often that not are
leaving the field having got the better of their opponents.
It can be difficult not to get carried away when things are
going so very well, all that maybe needs be said is that we
are only a third of the way into the season, and there are
many tough games that lie ahead.
Boroughmuir: Stephen Ruddick;
Tom Bury, Malcolm Clapperton, Elgan O'Donnell, Rory Couper;
Greg Cottrell, Calum Cusiter; Nigel Drapper, Sean Crombie,
Freddie Lait; Fergus Pringle, Graeme McCallum; Olly Brown, Ben Fisher,
Angus Martyn. Subs Used Cam Ward, Davie Cunningham, Joni
Hare, Andy Hadden, Rob Cairns |
