Last Saturday Marr travelled to Mansfield Park to take on Hawick, wanting to prove that their position at the top of the Tennent’s Premiership was fully justified.
Hawick opened the scoring with an Ali Weir penalty early on when Marr were caught offside. Two minutes later Marr equalised through stand-off Colin Sturgeon knocking over a 35m penalty of their own.
Marr now piled the pressure on the home sides defence and with the Marr dominance starting to show, the referee had no option but to send Stuart Graham to the sin bin. Shortly after Hawick’s ill-discipline started to show, when Marr were awarded a penalty try, as they drove towards the Hawick line. Deaglan Lightfoot was also yellow carded for collapsing the maul.
With Hawick now down to 13 men it was time for Marr to dish the punishment.
This was swift when Marr’s flying Fijian winger Iosefo Turaga sprinted onto a kick through the Hawick defence. Iosefo was first on his feet on pick up the loose ball and managed to dive over the line for Marr’s second.
Marr now managed to take further advantage as they strung together several phases of play that caught the Hawick defence scattered, leaving Marr’s Richard Dalgleish plenty of room to power through to score between the sticks.
Hawick then managed a small amount of pressure and came close to the Marr line when their team was back at full compliment.
However, as the first half drew to a close, Marr again put the phases of play together to allow centre Gregor Paxton to benefit and score easily.
Half time 31 points to 3 for Marr.
The second half started as the first had ended with Marr firmly on top. A great move involving forwards and backs broke the home team’s defence again, when Iosefo Turaga powered through two defenders tackles to score in the corner.
With Hawick’s spirit now thoroughly broken, Marr again put in the phases leaving Captain Conor Bickerstaff a gap so big he ran through at three quarter pace to score underneath the posts.
Marr now, 43 points to 3 up, with only 55 minutes of rugby on the clock, it looked like this was going to be a massacre.
To be fair to Hawick they then managed to retrieve some pride, as they now manged to pressurise Marr for a long period of time. Mitchell scored a great team try in the corner and ten minutes later they added a second through Kyle Brunton when he powered over the try line. Marr’s open side flanker Robert Brown then got his turn in the sin bin for collapsing a maul.
Marr managed to contain the late Hawick pressure, due mainly to some big hits form Mackenzie Pearce and Marr’s young hooker Jamie Drummond.
The final whistle blew with Marr recording a famous comfortable win 43 points to 15.
Looking back at the match it obvious how important team discipline is. Craig Redpath will be very pleased with his team, for not only playing some exceptional rugby but also keeping calm and playing controlled disciplined rugby.
Marr now sit 4 points clear at the top with two home games over the next two weeks, when Marr will defend the Bill McLaren Shield first at home to Selkirk followed by Edinburgh Accies.
Teams –
Hawick: A Weir; R McKean, A Mitchell, G Huggan, L Gordon Wooley; K Brunton. D Lightfoot; D Johnston, C Renwick, C Geer, S Fairbairn, D Suddon; S Graham, J Linton, Bruce McNeil. Subs: M Carryer, R Toogood, M Renwick, K Ford, G Welsh.

Marr: G Montgomery; R Dalgleish, G Paxton, C Bickerstaff, I Turaga; C Sturgeon, J Preston; B Sweet, O Rossi, C Henderson, E Bulger, F Grant, M Pearce, R Brown, B Grant. Subs: J Drummond, W Farquhar, C Cunningham, J Harvey, G Ness.
Referee: K Allen.
Scorers: Hawick: Tries: Mitchell, Brunton; Con: Weir; Pen Weir.
Marr: Tries: penalty try, Turaga 2, Dalgleish, Paxton, Bickerstaff; Cons Sturgeon 4; Pens Sturgeon.

Yellow cards: Hawick: Graham, Lightfoot
Marr: Robert Brown.
Man of the Match: It was a team effort and difficult to pinpoint anyone, but Brandon Sweet in the Marr front row was yet again solid, to say the least. Colin Sturgeon, Robert Brown and Mackenzie Pearce came close.