Phil Smith, the Heriot's coach, yesterday explained the clever switch of tactics that inspired his men to smash the unbeaten record of Stirling County.

The Bridgehaugh men had looked on course to stretch their run of success, however their challenge was swept aside in the second half as the hosts surged to an emphatic 42-19 victory at Goldenacre.

Smith said: "Before the interval, we tried to play with width because we thought we could get round them - but that didn't work too well.

"So we altered things at the restart and concentrated on going straight through them. Simple as that. It worked, and some of it was superb."

Smith added: "I still can't explain why we stumbled on day one of the campaign, but now we have won at Hawick and we have beaten the team at the top of the table, so we're delighted."

Hawick survived a fierce late surge to pull off a shock 27-26 success against Ayr at Millbrae.

The Borderers had stunned Ayr with first-half scores from Rory Hutton and Joaquin Domingues.

Tries by Craig Gossman and Will Bordill's score with seconds left gave the seasiders a chance of completing their salvage job - but they fell just short.

Edinburgh pro Carl Bezuidenhout was the Boroughmuir hero as they held out for a confidence-boosting 31-26 win against champions Melrose at the Greenyards.

The South African sparked the visitors into action with a penalty, then goaled his own try. He ended up with three further conversions for a points tally of 15.

Struggling Edinburgh Accies suffered a setback in their crushing 38-19 defeat by Currie in a fast-flowing Malleny Park tussle.

Sam Pecqueur put the visitors in front after just four minutes but it was all downhill from there as Currie's Joe Reynolds claimed two tries as well as landing all five conversions and a penalty.