Pre-match, the prediction from both camps was that this cup tie would be a close-run thing. It certainly lived up to that billing.

The scoreline shows a single point victory for Jed, but what it doesn't indicate is the intensity with which both sides defended throughout a rip-roaring match, and in particular the way that Jed maintained that slender margin in a pulsating final five minutes. In that closing spell Haddington, knowing the next stoppage would bring no-side', kept the ball alive through umpteen phases as they pounded the visitors' defensive line.

The sides had met on league business just a fortnight earlier, and on that occasion, as Clark Laidlaw, a player-coach at Jed, suggested, they had failed in their attempt to make the most of a harsh lesson learned in a similar double-header last year.

He said: "We let ourselves down a little bit here two weeks ago because we tried to hold a little bit back but still do enough to win. Last year we beat Cartha in the league one week, and they just watched us, then beat us easily in the cup again the next week.

"This time, we knew that if we could be a bit more accurate with the stuff we've been working on, that we could win - but it took a huge effort.

"There was a lot of attacking; these are two sides that want to play with a lot of width, trying hard to get the offloads going. We don't always get them because the skills levels maybe aren't quite there, but we're working hard to play that type of rugby."

In the opening half hour, Jed played at a frantic pace and created several decent chances, but great cover defence denied all but one of them. Haddington were stretched left by a great Roy McFarlane run before the ball was switched wide right. Again, the home tacklers held firm, but blind-side flanker Robert Ferguson managed to dive over.

Three minutes after Jed's try, Jamie Peters scored a simple penalty to pull back three points, but Gary Hill restored the five-point margin with a similar score.

In the second half, a penalty chance for each side went abegging before Haddington went ahead when referee David Walker awarded the penalty try and Peters added the simple conversion for 10-8.

Back came Jed, with Donald Grieve slotting the crucial penalty to edge them ahead before Haddington's late, but unsuccessful flurry.