Haddington 18 - Hawick 26
Mar
The end of this Season’s League campaign is in sight with only four matches left including this difficult trip to Haddington. The home side are fighting to avoid the drop and Hawick are looking more than likely to be promoted to Premier One as runners up behind Stirling County. Having comfortably defeated Haddington by forty points at Mansfield Park back in November, the visitors were looking for another bonus point win but Hawick were in for a rude awakening as Haddington controlled proceedings and had Hawick on the back foot for long spells of this match and they can consider themselves very unfortunate not to earn at least a point for all their efforts. Hawick had to dig deep at times and it was not until late in the game that they got clear of a very determined and up for it Haddington team. Ali Weir who was drafted in for the injured John Coutts, opened the scoring with a penalty but Haddington replied with a well taken try. Bruce McNeil then burst away from a maul to crash over for Hawick’s first try. Haddington finished the scoring in the first half with a penalty to tie the scores at half time at 8 all.
Haddington started the second half where they left off in the first and were asking serious questions of the Hawick defence. A converted try gave the home side a 15-8 lead. Winger Michael Graham finished off a move to score in the corner but Haddington extended their lead with another penalty to 18-13. Hawick then had Charters and McCracken yellow carded in quick succession and Haddington must have sensed an upset was on the cards. Hawick managed to get through the next ten minutes without conceding any points and another Weir penalty reduced the deficit to two points. With the match entering the final five minutes Hawick put in a final big effort. A well taken drop goal from Graham Hogg gave Hawick a single point lead at 19-18. At this stage it was all Hawick, with the forwards picking and driving but being held by good Haddington defence. Finally it was again Graham Hogg who went over at the posts for a try that was converted by Weir to seal a hard fought victory at 26 points to 8.
Team:- 1. Bruce McNeil, 2. Hue Scammell, 3. Ali Marsh, 4. Kieran Willison, 5. Craig Charters, 6. Ross Gibson, 7. Gary Lowrie, 8. Michael Robertson, 9. Kevin Reid, 10. Dean McCracken, 11. Steven Anderson, 12. Graham Hogg, 13. Gary Johnstone, 14. Michael Graham, 15. Ali Weir
16. Matt Landels, 17. Keith Miller, 18. Chris Ritson, 19. Greg Anderson
