CURRIE booked the fourth and final BT Premiership play-off spot on Saturday with an emphatic 19-67 victory over west Edinburgh rivals Boroughmuir at Meggetland, in one of two re-arranged fixtures which brought down the curtain on the regular league season.
They will now play Melrose at The Greenyards in the play-off semi-final on April 1, after the Borderers secured a top-of-the-table finish with a 7-30 victory over Stirling in the other match. Ayr host Glasgow Hawks in the other semi-final.
Currie’s victory saw them leap-frog past last season’s league and cup double winners Heriot’s into fourth place, and was achieved despite four of their best young players being away with the Scotland Under-20 team.
Veteran skipper Ross Weston led the charge with two tries for the visitors. Centre Robbie Nelson also contributed a brace, while Graeme Carson, John Cox, Ben Robbins, Matt Hooks, Harvey Elms and Dan Marek also got in on the act. Greg Cannie, Rab Cairns and Jordan Edmunds went over for the hosts.
Currie coach Ben Cairns said: “All week we focused on our performance. There were obviously a lot of external factors and if we allowed the fact that we needed four tries to put pressure on us then we would probably force things and make more mistakes.
"We tried to focus on just getting the performance right and said if we get the performance right everything else will take care of itself. That’s what we did.
“It’s also testament to the squad we have grown at the club that we have a lot of boys involved with the Under-20s and a few others injured,” he added.
Over at Bridgehaugh, a makeshift Stirling side showed admirable fighting spirit to just about keep Melrose in check until well into the second-half, but their opponents had too much firepower in the end.
Given the intransigence shown by Stirling for large sections of this match, it is a shame that two of the five tries they conceded were absolute gifts – with a dropped ball in midfield allowing Jason Baggott to score his team's first under the posts after a hack ahead and footrace, then Jonny Hope literally handed the ball over to Nyle Godsmark for try number three.
Melrose’s other scores came from Ali Grieve, Russell Anderson and Austin Lockington.
Meanwhile, in National One, Marr took another step towards automatic promotion with a 17-38 away victory over third place Jed-Forest; and Edinburgh Academicals look near certainties to be in the promotion play-off against Hawick after a 30-27 win at home to Dundee HSFP.
The Raeburn Place men are now 15 points ahead of Jed although the Borderers have three games in hand.
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