Club rugby: Charlie Simpson shines as Heriot’s keep double quest alive

Charlie Simpson dotted down three times as Heriots won against Jedforest at Riverside Park. Pic: SNS

The Goldenacre men were largely untroubled and had the game won by half-time, which they reached with a 45-7 lead against the only non-Premiership team in the last eight. However, they were guilty of easing off in the second period, adding only one try to chalk up a 52-26 success.

Charlie Simpson bagged a hat-trick and Craig Robertson notched up a double, while there was one apiece for Adam Sinclair, Michael Hughes and Ross Jones, who also weighed in with six conversions. Lewis Young crossed the whitewash three times for Jed and Monty Mitchell bagged the other try, with Gary Munro slotting three conversions.

Heriot’s coach Phil Smith thought his men had performed well in the opening 40 minutes and, although they were subsequently outscored, he was satisfied overall.

“When all’s said and done, our aim was to get through and we did that,” said Smith.

The win means that Heriot’s progress to a semi-final clash with Hawick at Goldenacre on 30 March.

Smith will relish an opportunity to right a perceived wrong when the sides met at the same stage in 2015. On that occasion a controversial decision saw a late Heriot’s try disallowed, sending Hawick to the final at Murrayfield.

Elsewhere, Watsonians battled hard at Melrose but ultimately succumbed to a more streetwise Borders outfit.

Melrose took an early lead when James Head crashed over and Craig Jackson converted, but Sonians battled back to lead 8-7 at the interval. With two Melrose players in the sin bin, the Capital men stepped up the pace and were rewarded when Josh Rowland touched down. Lee Millar booted a penalty for the visitors just before the break, but Melrose reclaimed the lead with a Ross McCann try shortly after the restart and kept the scoreboard ticking over with two penalties by Jackson, who concluded the scoring when he added the extra two points after a late try from Mike Mvelase-Julyan.

“I thought we played some smashing rugby. But that doesn’t win you games of rugby. We lacked a little bit of edge,” said Sonians coach Steve Lawrie, whose own future should become clearer this week. He has been appointed as head coach of the Watsonians’ Super 6 franchise for next season but has also been interviewed for the vacant job of assistant coach at Edinburgh Rugby.

Overall it has been a frustrating season for Lawrie, whose hopes of challenging for honours failed to materialise.

“We have just come up short to be honest. That’s disappointing, but if you look at the make up of the squad, we’ve got a good group of guys. When we get our best players out we are alright but we haven’t quite been there. We just need to learn,” he said.

There was also disappointment for Currie Chieftains, who suffered a first loss under coach Mark Cairns when they went down 34-19 at Ayr, who will now face Melrose at the Greenyards on semi-final duty.

Chieftains trailed 17-12 at the interval, having fought back from conceding two early tries to claim touchdowns from Ben Robbins and Scott McGinley, the latter converted by Gregor Hunter. However, Ayr were impressive in the second half and had the game won through a try double from Blair Macpherson and one apiece by Danny McCluskey, Grant Anderson and Tommy Spinks, plus nine points from the boot of Frazier Climo when Steven Hamilton bagged a converted consolation score for Chieftains late in the game.