Heriot's defence the foundation for victory over Marr

Marr's game plan kept them in contention until the final quarter but there was a degree of inevitability about the way Heriot's closed out the game and racked up maximum points and five tries.

Jack Turley scored an early try for Heriot's. Picture: Andrew O'Brien.

It was sweet revenge for a Heriot’s team who lost to Premiership newcomers Marr down on the Ayrshire coast at the beginning of the season but have recovered since and now sit in third top while Marr occupy third bottom.

“Marr had lots of ball and that was a frustration in that when we had the ball I thought we looked really good,” said Heriot’s coach Phil Smith. “We gave them a lot of possession, which was disappointing, but there wasn’t a lot of a threat and I thought we defended brilliantly.

“I thought our bench made a big impact – they should because we are at full strength and they’re now fighting for starting jerseys.”

Marr coach Craig Redpath said: “The difficult thing for us is that we came with a game plan and we did everything pretty well up to 60 minutes or so when we began making errors and they punished us. They were clinical in exploiting our mistakes but we have to take it on the chin and learn from it because it’s a massive game for us against Hawick and we need to be ready.”

It looked like Heriot’s would blow Marr off the pitch in the first few minutes and concentrated attacking ended with captain Jack Turley, pictured, going over beside the posts.

Marr took over control of the game after that and the pack began to dominate in set pieces and in the loose.

It was only resolute defending by Heriot’s that prevented Marr from converting their disproportionate share of possession and territory into points on the board.

Despite the lack of reward for their effort, Marr stuck to their task and finally broke through when blindside flanker Mackenzie Pearce crashed over for a converted try that made it all square at half-time.

The visitors went into the lead immediately after the break with a penalty kicked by full-back Dougie Steele but it was to prove the pinnacle of their performance.

Heriot’s restarted with a sense of urgency that had somehow gone missing after Turley’s early try and, slowly but surely, began to wrest back control of the game. The difference between the teams was that when Heriot’s had control they exploited it to the full. If there was a touch of luck about the try scored by hooker Michael Liness when a deflected pass landed in his arms as he fell over the line, his second soon afterwards was as skilful as the first was fortuitous – a touchdown preceded by a classic rolling maul.

The bonus point try was bagged by prop Stuart Cessford at the end of another Heriot’s surge and another member of the front row union, veteran replacement hooker Stewart Mustard, rounded off the afternoon with the fifth.