The romance of the cup is an often used phrase when cup
competitions come around be it in football or rugby. The reality
is that in rugby the possibility for a giant killing shock result
is much less than in football for the simple reason that in rugby
you have to defend the try line which runs the full width of the
playing field whereas in football, eleven men in front of the
goal can hold out.

So it proved for a spirited Accies side who showed plenty of
heart and desire in the early stages but the superior handling
skills, support play and ability to take their chances saw
Premiership 1 side Heriots comfortably cruise past Accies on a
simply glorious winters afternoon in perfect conditions for open
free flowing running rugby.

Accies kicked off with intent to get their tackles in early and
ruffle a few of Heriots feathers and they did until Heriots got
into their stride and steadily began to pile on the scores with
some terrific running rugby and a few harsh lessons for Accies in
how to finish off the slimmest of chances with some devastating
running rugby and terrific support play when the chances looked
to have been closed down.

With Murray Strang returning to the ground where he learned how
to play rugby and his brother, Grant, in Accies colours a Strang
was guaranteed to be on the winning side. Presumably Grant took
his chance to kick Murray in the shins under the table after the
game as Murray, like all good stand offs, finished the game with
his kit still persil fresh.


That's not to say that Accies didn't try because they did and
mightily at times and hopefully they will have learnt a huge
amount by playing a team that wasn't physically superior or
faster than Accies but their general game awareness, support play
and ability to take their chances was way ahead of what Accies
normally come up against in National League 2 and hopefully they
will have learned from the experience.

With Heriots having scored 47 point by half time the game was
effectively over, but importantly they hadn't steamrollered
Accies in any way but had simply scored with every clear cut
chance they had in the half. Clearly the sign of a good team and
a real lesson to Accies that if you miss touch line kicks and
turnover ball then you will get punished by the better teams
who'll simply run it straight back at you.

The second half opened up with Heriots looking to push on but
Accies' defence at close quarters is again tremendous and they
hold firm. However, the match official adjudged that Accies,
while trying to break out of defence, had knocked the ball on,
disappointingly it was clear to all watching that the Heriots
player had actually knocked the ball back rather than Accies
knocking on and Heriots managed to work the ball to the other
side of the pitch where the Accies defence was thin and they
scored again.

The next passage of play was Accies best spell of the match as
they put Heriots under sustained pressure for the next 10 minutes
and they got their reward when, Murray Strang, under pressure,
kicked wildly from behind their own line and Accies flying wing
Scott Hazeley took the catch and screamed in from 35 metres side
stepping two defenders in the process for Accies sole try
converted from out wide by Gareth Williams.

This ended Accies scoring but Heriots weren't finished and they
really took it to Accies as their superior fitness told and they
ran in a total of 14 tries over the whole game, importantly
although they scored so many tries Accies were unbowed and
refused to lie down.

Final Score: Accies 7 - Heriots 90.

For Accies the Cup dream is over, Accies now move to the shield
competition draw and hope for a slightly kinder draw than this
tie. For Heriots, if they keep up this form they could go all the
way...

This article was originally posted on 18-Feb-2008, 14:39 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 18-Feb-2008, 15:20.