The Sunday Herald reports

RBS Premiership: Twists and turns as play-offs loom
Published on 17 March 2013

In what is now a nail-biting finish at the bottom of the RBS Premiership, wins for Stirling County and Edinburgh Accies propelled them into top-four contention and, remarkably, despite losing, Dundee HSFP have overtaken Currie, who drop into the relegation play-off spot.

Against an already-relegated Boroughmuir, Stirling made no mistake at Bridgehaugh and their 34-14 win takes them from seventh spot to fourth, with the game virtually out of sight at the break as the home side took a 20-0 lead. Alex Moffat, Ben Addison and Byron McGuigan struck for Stirling in the first 40 minutes, Brian Archibald and Tim Clarke crossed for the second-half tries, with Archibald adding a penalty and three conversions.

In a match set up to settle all sorts of issues next weekend, Stirling travel to Mayfield where Dundee lost 23-17 to Edinburgh Accies yesterday.

Although the hosts opened the scoring with a Richie Hawkins try, converted by Jack Steele, Tom Drennan and Nyle Godsmark countered with tries to take Accies in 10-7 ahead at the break.

Danny Levison crossed for Dundee in the second half and Steele landed his kicks but a try for hooker Michael Liness and the conversion and two penalties from Ruaridh Bonner led to the points heading back to Raeburn Place. A losing bonus point for Dundee, though, was enough to lift them above Currie on points differential. The Malleny Park men take on Heriot's at home next week as they attempt to avoid the play-off spot.

In the RBS National League, Glasgow Hawks finally overtook Hawick to top the table by one point going into the final game and, after a squeaky win at Kelso last week, they left nothing on the bus on this week's trip to the Borders to face Jed-Forest, beating their hosts 66-10.

Hawks were 28-10 ahead at half-time thanks to a couple of tries from Ross Miller and one each from Tony Herron and David Milne, with Mike Adamson landing all four conversions. Herron grabbed two tries after the break to complete his hat-trick, Peter Redmayne joined in with a pair of strikes, and Tom Preece and Jono Wright claimed one apiece.

Adamson converted four from six in the second half and Hawks go into their final match against Hillhead/Jordanhill next week knowing a bonus-point win would guarantee promotion regardless of what Hawick do against Jed-Forest at Riverside.

This article was posted on 17-Mar-2013, 18:45 by Hugh Barrow.