Club Rugby

Scotland’s Club XV put in a better showing in the second leg of the Dalriada Cup at Energia Park in Dublin last night by grabbing a late draw, but the home side lifted the silverware.

Currie moved into second place in the race for the play-off places with a try-bonus win at the Greenyards.

This bonus-point win ensured Ayr of top place in the Tennent’s Premiership, top seeding and a home semi-final in the end-of-season play-offs, with one game still to play.

Heriot’s maintained their bid for a home play-off when they produced a strong second half performance to overturn a half-time deficit and take all five league points. But the hosts were given a stern test before eventually shaking off their capital rivals.

Stirling earned revenge for the heavy defeat inflicted upon them by Hawick in October, but they had to dig very deep and come from behind to do so.

Accies nicked this one off a weary-looking Watsonians to claim only their second win of the season.

Stirling County took maximum points with a bonus point secured before half-time as they narrowed the gap between themselves and Boroughmuir in the Tennent’s Premiership.

Heriot’s added to the top four congestion in the BT Premiership by defeating injury-hit Melrose with an impressive performance.

Ayr proved too powerful for their hosts and scored five tries to move back to the top of the Premiership.

This basement battle was always going to be tight, and thus it proved, with a patched-up Hawks side just holding off a late Accies fightback to take the points. With Hawick losing heavily at home, Hawks also leap-frogged the Greens.

Currie Chieftains remain on track for a play-off spot after taking the honours in a hard-fought Edinburgh derby.

Melrose travelled to Bridgehaugh as favourites but found themselves up against a determined County side in no mood to capitulate and the men from the Greenyards had to dig very deep for the victory.

Watsonians added their name to the illustrious list of clubs on the Bill McLaren Shield after defeating a much improved Glasgow Hawks side at Myreside with a bonus point win.

Edinburgh Accies won their first game of the season in spectacular fashion yesterday with this defeat of Hawick.

Ayr made things hard for themselves, but in the end 
their magnificent defence enabled them to stifle a powerful second-half Boroughmuir performance to grab four points and stay on top of the Tennent’s Premiership.

A spectacular drop goal deep into added time under the floodlights won a closely contested game for Currie.

2018 proved a topsy-turvy year but then this is Scottish rugby so you probably knew that much already. The political row around the sacking of Keith Russell as the SRU’s head of domestic rugby was undoubtedly the most depressing aspect of Scottish rugby over the past year, with the structure of checks and balances struggling to keep some of the governing body’s bigger personalities at bay. The return of the Calcutta Cup to Murrayfield’s trophy cabinet for the first time in a decade proved the highlight – and there was plenty to ponder between those two extremes.

Watsonians held on in a dramatic finish to clinch a victory despite losing the try count 2-1 in a tense tussle at Mansfield Park.

Heriot’s blunted the challenge of a resilient Stirling County with eight tries in the bone-chilling cold of a winter’s afternoon.