​Hawick defy two fightbacks by Accies to claim fourth Scottish cup win by a whisker

Interim head coach Graham Hogg’s Borderers raced into a 17-0 lead just past the quarter-of-an-hour mark at the capital’s Murrayfield Stadium but were pegged back to 17-12 within five minutes and left a man short by a yellow card for right-winger Charlie Welsh.

They then defied that disparity in numbers by increasing their advantage to a dozen points by half-time, later extending their lead to 32-12, only for opposite number Iain Berthinussen’s Accies to mount another comeback and get within a penalty of parity ahead of the final whistle.

Hawick’s four tries were scored by outside centre Andrew Mitchell, openside flanker Calum Renwick, left-winger Ronan McKean and lock Connor Sutherland, with full-back Kirk Ford converting three of them and also kicking two penalties.

Accies’ try-scorers were No 8 Jamie Sole, left-winger Max Wallace and replacements Kieran Slingsby and Fraser McAslan and their touchdowns were accompanied by a penalty try and one conversion by fellow substitute Ross Cadzow.

Loosehead prop Muir – making his 236th appearance for the Greens, three of them in cup finals, Saturday’s predecessors being last year’s 31-13 win against Marr and 2015’s 55-17 loss to Boroughmuir – was chuffed to bits to see his side come up trumps for the second time on the bounce.

“We’re delighted obviously to have won back-to-back cups,” said the 30-year-old.

“Like last year, it was a tough game but we were delighted to get over the line.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d get another shot after 2015’s final so I’m glad to have been able to put that one to bed twice over. The last two years have made up for it.”

Looking back over the weekend’s final, Muir said he was surprised to see Hawick put so much distance between themselves and Accies both early on and in the second half, given the relative closeness of their Scottish Premiership games this season, wins by 20-15 away in September and 26-16 at home in November.

“If I’m honest, I’d thought it was going to be close,” he said.

“We’ve had reasonably close games against them over the last couple of years, so the start shocked us a little bit, going 17-0 up.

“It was brilliant to get into that lead considering how slowly we started last year’s final, but we knew Accies would come back into it. They’re a good side, with some really good players.

“It was a bit disappointing to let them get back in the game at 32-12, though. From there, we should really have seen it out and managed it a bit better, but they’re a very good side and they threw everything at us as they had to have a go, so fair play to them for making it so close in the end.”

Muir reckons it was Hawick’s experience – having made it to four prior finals, winning three, in 1996, 1997 and 2023, as opposed to Accies one previous final, a 24-13 loss to Glasgow Hawks in 2007 – that made the difference.

“The experience of last year helped us big time,” he said.

“I think Accies were a bit shellshocked to begin with and our experience of last year helped us to build up that lead.”

Hawick now share the record for cup wins with Melrose, Ayr, Boroughmuir and Heriot’s, all having four to their names, and Muir is hoping they’ll be given a chance to get their noses in front in 2025.