A bonus-point victory for Glasgow Hawks at home to Boroughmuir on Saturday made them the third team behind Melrose and Ayr to book their spot in the end of season play-offs with two rounds of matches in this BT Premiership campaign still to go while. at the other end of the table. Watsonians picked up two losing bonus points in a 13-try thriller at the Greenyards to move themselves almost beyond the clutches of the relegation battle.
That means, of course, that the final play-off slot is still up for grabs and Heriot’s kept their noses in front of Currie in that race with a comprehensive 0-26 dismantling of Gala, which leaves the Netherdale men firmly rooted to the foot of the table.
Charlie Simpson and Gavin Parker were exceptional for Heriot’s, sharing three tries between them and making several more telling contributions with the ball in hand, and after a bumpy start to the season it might just be that the champions of the previous two years are hitting their straps at exactly the right time.
Heriot’s finished third in the table last year but went on to claim the main prize after nail-biting victories over Currie in the semi-final and then Ayr in the grand final, so they have a bit of pedigree when it comes to getting it right when it really matters.
Heriots’ coach Phil Smith certainly seems to be pretty enthused about the current state of play.
“This is how it kind of rolled out last year, without tempting fate. We had a little blip just before Christmas and then we went on to win a lot of games. We seem to get onto a roll or a habit of winning games. I’m not going to say that it will definitely be the same, but the closer we get to the end of the season, the more we seem to gel,” he said.
“Gala at home and desperate for a win was always going to be difficult. It took up until the 79th minute for us to get our fourth try of the afternoon, but I think we looked really dangerous for the majority of the match. We didn’t have to get a bonus point, obviously, but it really just eases the pressure going into the last two games,” he added.
Currie, however, are not going to make it easy for Heriot’s to reach the promised land and they kept the pressure on with a dominant 38-8 win at home to Hawick.
The fight to avoid the drop is now theoretically between four sides, although it looks a long way back for Gala, who are four points adrift of second bottom Hawick and are on a seven match losing streak in the league.
They head to Hawick next for a match which could easily make or break their season. Assistant coach Opeta Palepoi thought he saw more fighting spirit from his team on Saturday than in recent weeks and if anything is going to get a Gala player’s blood pumping it is a derby match against their fiercest rivals with everything on the line.
“What I can say is that we’re not going to give up. We are going to keep on fighting and control what we can control, and that is just trying to win the next game. We came out today trying to play rugby, and it was a massive improvement, if you watched last weekend’s defeat to Watsonians,” said Palepoi.
“Once this unit clicks together they will show what they are capable of. When a team loses so many games in a row, confidence is always going to be an issue, so I think we just need to get over that hump.”
Boroughmuir are not clear of danger yet either. They are currently just one point ahead of Hawick and five ahead of Gala, and they go to Netherdale in the final round of matches for what could be another tense encounter.
Stirling County are seven points ahead of Gala with a game in hand so are almost certainly clear of automatic relegation, but finishing second bottom
– which means a play-off against the second top team in National One – is still a distinct possibility.
Head coach David Adamson will be looking for some more of the grit on display for 60 minutes against Ayr on Saturday in his team’s remaining three matches. Stirling deserved to take a bonus point or two out of the game, but had no answer when their opponents cranked up the intensity in the final quarter.
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