JED-FOREST were buried beneath a seven-try avalanche as their Scottish Cup run came to an abrupt end against a workmanlike but seriously clinical Heriot's team that now face Melrose in the final next month.
The Borders club were in uncharted territory, never having got as far as a semi-final before, and after a decent 20 minutes of expansive rugby they rapidly lost their way. It was the first time the Division 2 team had played opposition from a hig
her league in this season's tournament and, unfortunately for them, when measured against the Division 1 big boys they were found wanting.
Jed's director of rugby Roy Laidlaw said: "I couldn't fault the players for effort. Jed will never give up. You could see the mental demons were there because you are always a bit terrified about what might happen in a game like this so you play out of your skin at the start. But you can only keep that going so long and the power and the size of the Heriot's players was too much for us.
"We are obviously not ready to come up into Premier 1 yet. If the game had been at Riverside and we had that kind of start it might have been different. I'm sure it would have been a lot tighter. We fell off a lot of tackles, that was the biggest disappointment and, of course, they had some good finishers."
The mental demons were evident in the way Jed got right in the faces of the home side for the first quarter, forcing Heriot's onto the back foot and preventing them from settling into any kind of rhythm.
When Heriot's winger Cameron Bruce was sin-binned for a late challenge that was also dangerously high, there seemed a possibility that Jed might be able to take advantage, but the truth was they were playing their best rugby in the midfield going through the phases without any real penetration.
To be fair, Heriot's were far from lethal at this point, more often resorting to aimless kicking rather than ambitious running. But Bruce was still on the sidelines when it suddenly clicked into place and No8 Craig Simmonds barreled over the line for the first try.
It was closely followed by centre James Thompson carving a path through the defence before passing to his Scotland Sevens colleague Chris Fusaro for another easy try.
It was 14-0 at half-time and Jed still had hopes of recovering but Heriot's slapped that idea down with a try minutes after the restart, full-back Colin Goudie making the ground before passing to flanker Tam McVie for the touchdown.
Heriot's began to threaten a massacre. First the big lock Garrett Noonan was shunted over the line by his pack only to be held up, then a few minutes later tryscorer Simmonds was judged to also be held up. Heriot's shifted from Plan A to Plan B and put the ball wide for skipper Marc Teague to score in the corner.
Jed got one back when Jamie McCraw ran round a defence that seemed to have switched off, but that only resulted in a Heriot's backlash that brought three tries in quick succession from Simmonds, Thompson and lock Peter Eccles. Jed's only consolation was preventing Heriot's reaching the half-century, and showing the required pluck of underdogs by battling right to the end and being rewarded with a well-constructed try for full-back Robert Hogg to crash over under the posts.
Heriot's coach Bob McKillop said: "We didn't expect it to be easy. Jed really got stuck into us early on and fought very hard but we played some nice stuff. We like the hard ground. It suits our way of playing and I think we switched off a bit towards the end.
"It is a real thrill to reach the final. Part one of the big prize is getting to Murrayfield. Part two is obviously what happens when we get there. Melrose beat us down in the Borders quite convincingly, and we beat them up here. I think Melrose, safe to say, have been the team to watch in the second half of the season. They beat champions Boroughmuir to get to the final, and they beat them in the league, so we know it is going to be tough."
Scorers: Heriot's: Tries: Simmonds 2, Fusaro, McVie, Teague, Thompson, Eccles. Cons: Wilson 4, Strang 2. Jed-Forest: Tries: McCraw, Hogg. Cons: Grieve, Laidlaw.
Heriot's: C Goudie; M Teague, J Thompson, C Goodall, C Bruce; M Strang, G Wilson; B McNeil, N Meikle, W Blacklock, P Eccles, G Noonan, T McVie, C Fusaro, C Simmonds. Subs used: S Mustard, I Brown, R Grant, O Brown.
Jed-Forest: R Hogg; J McCraw, D Gobby, G Hill, R MacFarlane; C Laidlaw, R Goodfellow; P Thomson, D Grieve, G Holborn, L Patton, N Cook, R Ferguson, B Graham, S Laidlaw. Subs used: M Graham, N Bates, D Grieve, J Hogg.
Referee: D Changleng
