Heriots v Hawick

Guy reports:
'The day didn't start well with the plane being an hour late so I missed the first 20 minutes and arrived as we were 5-8 down playing into a nasty swirling breeze. My headline would be that Barney's trust in the reserves didn't go to plan ! Unforced errors, stupid turnover ball and errant kicks did not help, nor did attempts to pass and generally to try and run from our
own 22 and not clearing the lines. Colin Turnbull had a nightmare first half with a head gash and having horrendous problems catching the ball on several occasions where aerial ping pong seemed to be the order of the day. He had a much better second half I am glad to say. Joe was massive up front and Barrie as tenacious as ever but at the end of the day we were nearly outscrummaged, the lineout needs a lot of work, and passing the ball to an isolated Nikki Walker who was forced to concede a penalty from a position where an open side pass would have resulted in a certain try was suicidal. Heriot's full back, Gregor Lawson, entered the line frequently to great effect, and as much as I never rated Stuart Lang in the Reivers he was a model of strength and discipline in the centre, and our shuffled back line just simply could not cope. It was too much to ask Ryan Philbin to be anything other than nervous, and it became obvious that he was never going to try and make a break which meant that the Heriot's outside backs could concentrate on stopping inside passes and on bringing down Gavin Douglas at will. We were simply beaten by the better team on the day and whilst the Hawick support was as usual vociferous it was along the lines of "waken up Hawick" rather than congratulatory. I think we have only ourselves to blame! I am so sad to have witnessed the defeat since the last game I was up for was the semi at Melrose. Maybe I should stay away!!!!!!'

Final score: Heriot's  25 Hawick 18