Currie 34 - 19 Boroughmuir: Tom Brown steals the show for Currie

Forget the scoreline for a moment because this was a nail-biter of a match that went Currie's way largely thanks to the presence of Edinburgh's Tom Brown who was lurking on the wing. The full-time professional made his presence felt by scoring two of Currie's five tries, including the all-important one six minutes from time that finally broke Boroughmuir's obstinate resistance.

Starting Brown on the bench, after the youngster came on for Chris Paterson in Edinburgh ranks against Leinster on Friday night, Ally Donaldson didn't waste much time in throwing his man into the action.

That the home side deserved the win isn't in doubt - the 5-1 try count tells its own story - but it could have had a different ending if Muir had made their tackles at the right times. All too often in the game the home side were ushered on their way to the try line with too much deference rather than the bone-crunching tackles that they were due.

After giving their hosts a 22-9 advantage at half time Muir did well to fight their way back into this game and, with a three-point gap in the final five minutes, the momentum was firmly behind Fergus Pringle's men.

"We fought hard to get back into this match, I think we did well to do that," said the disappointed coach on his side's first loss of the season. "It came down to a couple of mistakes. We had a penalty in the middle of the park and we tapped and ran when we could have put it in the corner and kept them under pressure.

"Full credit to Currie because they've scored the tries today and they played off a few of our mistakes. We gave them a couple of scores in the first half and I said to the guys that at 22-19 it was anyone's game. We defended really well to keep them out with 13 men and relieved the pressure and then made a mistake. I think we can take heart from this performance."

Currie scored three tries in a blistering first half in which Muir's only response was three penalties from Ally Warnock.

The first touchdown came inside two minutes from winger Alan Whittingham who took advantage of some woeful defending to dap down in the right hand corner. Brown finished off another flowing move on the opposite side of the field, and the best score went to Mark Cairns who got on the end of a break by James Johnston, with Brown - who seemingly had the beating of the defence almost every time he touched the ball - acting as the link man on this occasion.

Warnock added a conversion to his three penalties just after the break when Jamie Doubleday drove over from short range, and suddenly the match was alive.Three yellow cards were shown in the space of 11 minutes, two going to the visitors, but the wind was now in Boroughmuir's sails and it looked just a matter of time before they would get the penalty that would earn them the draw.

It never appeared. Instead Currie's Andy Binikos, on for Matt Scott at fly-half, sparked a counter-attack from deep inside his own 22. Johnston carried the ball into Muir's half and Brown was on hand to outpace the defence up the right hand flank and touch down under the posts. Currie had their bonus point win and Whittingham added some icing in the closing minutes by grabbing his second score.

Muir were the last side to remain unbeaten but, as Pringle noted after the match, this is going to be a closer title race than last year's. "I think sides will be beaten this year. Hawks lost today. We could have come closer to Currie. I see how teams have been turned over and hopefully that will be good for the league."

Scorers: Currie: Tries: Whittingham 2, Cairns, Brown 2. Cons: Smith 3. Pens: Smith. Boroughmuir: Tries: Doubleday. Cons: Warnock. Pens: Warnock 4.

Currie: Smith; Whittingham, Johnston, MacMahon, Fife; M Scott, Sneddon; Cox, F Scott, Merilees, Wilson, Adam, M Cairns, Entwhistle, Weston. Subs: Simonsen, Hamilton, Temple, Binikos, Brown.

Boroughmuir: Jones; R Cairns, Clapperton, Wilson, Neill; Warnock, Samson; Hislop, Crombie, Fraser, McColl, Davidson, Doubleday, Rodger, O'Riordan. Subs from: McIntosh, Latta, Hare, Reekie, Blackhall.

Referee: J Matthew.