Hawick 19

Marr 23

Atholl Innes at Mansfield Park

FORMER Melrose player Craig Redpath returned to haunt another Borders club at the weekend – this time as coach of BT Premiership newcomers, Marr.

Redpath was biting his nails in the final 15 minutes as Hawick cut the deficit to one point – but showed his long-time experience as Marr kept the ball tight to deny the hosts possession and seal the points with the final kick of the game.

Redpath told us: “I am absolutely happy with the win.

"We have to be competitive every week, and to beat Hawick at Mansfield Park is tremendous.

"We played pretty well in the first half and I knew that Hawick would come back at us. They gained the momentum with their first try and then scored again, but we found something to win the game."

Marr won the points with penalty, kicked by Colin Surgeon, deep into injury time to secure its second win in a row.

It was the third successive match that Hawick had gained a bonus point in defeat with coach Darren Cunningham showing his positive hopes for the future.

He said: “I am very disappointed with the result.

"We started with a bad 40 minutes and the second half was a lot better, but it was not brilliant.

“The subs made an impact in the second half, we kept the ball and started to build some phases. If there had been another 10 minutes, we could probably have won the game.”

Hawick struggled in the first half after two penalty goals from Sturgeon gave Marr the lead.

The hosts had opportunities to score, but tries by Richard Dalgleish and Greg Jackson, converted by Sturgeon and Dougie Steele, ensured a half-time lead, and this despite Marr being handed out three yellow cards to Craig Kolarik, Guy Graham and Greg Peterson.

Hawick turned the game round after the break with three tries in 12 minutes from Lewis Ferguson, Kyle Brunton and Tom Brown, two converted by Ali Weir, ensuring a close finish.

Marr held on to follow up their win at Heriot’s a week earlier to gain revenge for their cup defeat at the same ground last season – it was a long, but happy journey back home.

Hawick: T. Brown; R. Combe, L. Armstrong, D. Buckley, L. Ferguson; A. Weir, G. Munro; N. Little, F, Brown, K. Bryce, C. Hamilton, D. Redpath, G. Graham, B. McNeil R. Gibson. Replacements: M. Carryer, S. Muir, S. Graham, G. Cottrell, K. Brunton.