West of Scotland 12 - 45 West of Scotland 12: Hoggs in heaven as Hawick run in seven

Coach Derek Armstrong was in a relaxed mood after this seven- try dispatch of West, saying: "I would have taken that score before we left Hawick - a bonus point victory away from home!"

The win took the Greens out of the dreaded bottom four to give them a mid-table foothold as they seek to re-establish themselves in the top flight.

Helped by their opponents' mistakes, Hawick led 19-0 at half-time, after penetrative running and excellent handling produced two early tries - for Sean Linton and Stuart Hogg - and one for Graham Hogg.

Stuart Hogg went on to bag a hat-trick, the visitors' other tries coming from Rory Hutton and Keith Davies. West scored late through Ally Stevenson and Rob McAlpine, but West coach Keith Robertson announced extra training ahead of this weekend's crucial game with Watsonians.

Scorers: West of Scotland: Tries: Stevenson, McAlpine. Con: Stevenson. Hawick: Tries: S Hogg 3, Linton, G Hogg, Hutton, Davies. Cons: Hutton 2, Renwick 2, S Hogg.

West of Scotland: M Sim; C McKenzie, R Dalgleish, K Matheson, A McCall Hagen; A Stevenson, A Fisken; S Longwell, G Haswell, E McLaren, R McAlpine, G Perrett, D Young, A De Ste Croix, M Jenkinson. Subs Used: I Henderson, D McKenna, C Morrison, M McConnell, M Horner.

Hawick: G Hogg; G Johnstone, S Hogg, A Dunbar, S Anderson; R Hutton, G Cottrell; B McNeil, M Landels, S Linton, C Charters, K Davies, N MacTaggart, D Landels, D Lowrie. Subs Used: N Renwick, M Robertson, G Lowrie, A Marsh, L Gibson.

Referee: D Walker (Irvine).