Silver Saturday: Hawick showered with praise after securing double, Watsonians show mettle to land Sarah Beaney Cup

Watsonians landed the Sarah Beaney Cup with a victory against Corstorphine Cougars at BT Murrayfield.

The Borderers were down 6-3 at half-time to Marr at BT Murrayfield, but came out flying in the second period and ran in 28 points to come through 31-13 against the men from Troon. Full-back Kirk Ford led the way in the match with 21 points while winger Ronan McKean and hooker Fraser Renwick scored tries as the Mansfield Park outfit added this silverware to the Tennent’s Premiership crown they won in March.

After leading the club to a first double since 2001/02, Douglas said: “If I’m honest, it was a poor first half for us. We had a lot of individual errors and that’s not like us, but the last 10 minutes of that half we started to see the Hawick we’ve been all season. We felt we hadn’t dealt a blow and we were only three points down. What I said at half time certainly helped and the second half was outstanding in terms of character, structure, defensive, everything really. I can’t praise the players enough, they have given everything in recent months and deserve this.”

Marr’s points came through a try by centre Conor Bickerstaff and eight points from the boot of his co-captain Colin Sturgeon. “In the first half we did what we wanted to do and we went in reasonably happy,” Kenny Diffenthal, a member of their coaching team, said. “When you start to chase the game that’s when you make more errors and that’s when Hawick started to put a squeeze on the game. I’m proud of the boys, they tried right to the end.”

Hawick players celebrate winning the Scottish Cup after defeating Marr at BT Murrayfield.

Meanwhile, Watsonians head coach Bruce Millar praised the leaders in the squad after the Myresiders battled back from 10-0 down to defeat Corstorphine Cougars 26-25 in the women’s Sarah Beaney Cup final at the same venue. “I thought the leaders in the squad did a great job to help the girls turn this one around, because at 10-0 down early on things were looking tricky for us,” he explained. “We scored from basically our first attack and built from there. The players then showed good game management late on and the girls can be proud of their achievement.”

Winger Mary Nelson, captain Briar McNamara and centre Francesca McGhie (2) scored tries for Watsonians with McNamara kicking three conversions. Winger Rheo Laurenson, second-row Adelle Ferrie, stand-off Tanya Griffiths and back-row Luise Lauter scored tries for Cougars with full-back Kiyomi Honjigawa kicking five points.

Cougars have now lost the Premiership final and the Cup final this term and head coach Eric Jones said: “It is a tough defeat to take, but I am immensely proud of the girls and everything they have done this season. We said before the match that the result would not define how far the women’s section of the club has come as we are making real strides.”

Overall, seven finals were played at Murrayfield and the DAM Health Stadium. In the other men’s finals, Kinloss Eagles won the National Bowl and Stewartry lifted the National Shield. In the other women’s finals, West of Scotland are National Shield champions, Grangemouth took home the National Plate and Hillhead Jordanhill 2nd XV lifted the National Bowl.