Coach Craig Redpath wants more from top-of-table Marr

Curries Steven Hamilton attempts to make a break during Saturdays defeat by Marr. Picture: SNS/SRU

Four points clear at the top of the Tennent’s Premiership, with the hugely-impressive Bill McLaren Shield safely installed in the clubhouse, life is good for Marr this Monday morning. But you will not find head coach Craig Redpath resting on his laurels in the wake of Saturday’s impressive beating of closest challengers Currie.

“We still have things to work on, and face a tour outing at Mansfield on Saturday,” he said. “We have work to do – our form for the first 50 or 60 minutes against Currie was as good a performance as we have given but, credit to Currie for the way they finished, our performance definitely dropped off, and we cannot do that at Hawick.”

Mark Cairns of Currie saw his plans largely disrupted when the influential Gregor Hunter got his tackling protocol wrong and was off with a head knock after only four minutes, but he felt his young backs coped well without their puppet master.

“We lost this game on poor defence and a lack of physicality, which had us on the back foot. We gave a poor performance, but keeping going to earn a four-try bonus has to be a glimmer of hope,” the Currie coach added.

With two of his side’s seven tries and five conversions, Colin Sturgeon was the stand-out player for Marr, who also had excellent performances from their pack.

Tries by lock Fraser Grant, full-back Greg Montgomery and prop Willie Farquhar, against a Steven Hamilton penalty and a Mark Vernal try, had Marr 19-8 up at the break.

Conor Bickerstaff crossed for the bonus point, before Sturgeon’s brace book-marked a Jack Scott touch-down and Marr were home and hosed at 45-8 after an hour.

They relaxed, Currie kept going and two tries by full-back Charlie Brett and one by skipper Fergus Scott, the latter two converted by Hamilton, enabled Currie to earn their own bonus and put a better complexion on  the final score.