Currie coach Ben Cairns insists his side must take chances

Currie will have a crack at filling the fourth and final play-off place at the end of the regular season when they play Boroughmuir in a re-arranged fixture next month.

Tempers flare at Malleny Park as Curries Mike Vernal has a disagreement with Glasgow Hawks Andrew Kirkland. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

It won’t be winner-takes-all because a simple win is not enough for Currie. They need to score four tries for a bonus- point win or defending champions Heriot’s slip in above them after getting their own bonus point victory at Stirling at the weekend. Lose, and Currie’s season is over.

Currie coach Ben Cairns, pictured, said: “We will approach the Boroughmuir game the same way we approached this one. For the team it is about performance and playing the way we have played all season. If we do that then the tries should follow.

“Today, I thought we could have had a bonus point the amount of chances we let go. I always thought we were on top we just didn’t take our chances. I always get a bit worried when you have real dominance and it doesn’t show on the scoreboard.”

Cairns had no need to worry. Hawks, who were already guaranteed the third play-off place, put up stubborn resistance but were eventually worn down, stumbling to their second defeat in a row after being hammered by Ayr the previous week.

It was 5-5 at half-time after full-backs Harvey Elms and Sean Yacoubian crossed for their respective teams. In the second 40 Currie stand-off Jamie Forbes kicked a couple of penalties to stretch away followed by a couple of tries by Robbie Nelson and Ben Robbins, the last beyond 80 minutes with no time to go for a fourth that would have brought the bonus.

It was a dour struggle. Hawks were mainly about defence and used up all their attacking ideas in the first half.

The centre pairing of Paddy Kelly and Jack Steele made 50 metres with an interchange of passes but the final pass to go wide was intercepted by Currie’s Ratu Tagire.

Glasgow stand-off Hagen Schulte missed two long-range penalty attempts from just inside his opponents’ half in the space of two minutes. In another breakout Kelly was flying in at the corner when Currie captain Ross Weston hit him with a try-saving tackle.

Hawks full-back Sean Yacoubian did score to square the game at halftime, but after that Currie assumed control and went on to win comfortably even if the points did come late.

Hawks coach Finlay Gillies said: “It was really disappointing. I have to look at myself. Maybe the preparation wasn’t ideal and we took our foot of the gas because we had third place assured. It would have been different if we had to come here and win.”

Hawks still have plenty of rugby to play this season and are tilting at both the Premiership title and the BT Cup. “We now need to reboot our season,” Gillies said.“We have to work extremely hard.”