Shota Arveladze and Peter Lovenkrands were the Gers goalscorers in a Light Blues’ performance that was perfunctory rather than spectacular but at least maintained Alex McLeish’s impressive record of never having lost a domestic cup tie during his tenure at Ibrox.
Injury had again forced McLeish’s hand in terms of team selection, with suspension and injury sidelining Craig Moore and Gavin Rae respectively.
The Rangers boss administered another change of his own choosing, with Michael Ball relegated to the bench – alongside Hamed Namouchi – making Paolo Vanoli a surprise starter.
With last week’s defeat at Celtic Park rendering the retention of the league title virtually impossible, there was added pressure on McLeish’s men ahead of kick-off to embark on another elongated cup run.
Bearing that in mind, it was a curiously withdrawn start from the Light Blues who seemed content to let their hosts boss the early exchanges, although a Garry O’Connor header that drifted well was the closest they came to troubling Stefan Klos.
In a scrappy opening spell of little or no entertainment, each side picked up a booking apiece with Hibs also losing Grant Brebner who left the field on a stretcher following an innocuous challenge from Fernando Ricksen.
So much for the romance of the Scottish Cup – this was more like a drunken teenage fumble in the back of a clapped-out Cortina.
Surprisingly, it took the enforced substitution of Chris Burke to change all that. The 20 year-old winger – a rare Rangers success in recent weeks – seemed to turn his ankle and was escorted from the pitch writhing in agony with just over 30 minutes on the clock.
His removal saw the arrival of Namouchi who darted eagerly from the subs’ bench to make his first-team debut.
The French-Tunisian’s twisty hair may resemble one half of 90s teeny rappers Kris Kross but it wasn’t long before he was putting his curly thatch to good use to set up Rangers’ opener.
Vanoli threaded a cute pass down the line that Lovenkrands collected and fired over to the back post.
Namouchi rose highest to nod the centre back across the face of the goal where the tireless Arveladze glanced a cushioned header into the corner of the net.
Namouchi – who also scored in last week’s Old Firm under-21 match – was full of running and as the interval approached, the 19 year-old scudded a low shot just wide before he was upended on the edge of the box as he tried to connect with Mikel Arteta’s threaded ball.
Arteta’s free kick, however, was not as accurate as his earlier pass as he cannoned a right-foot effort high into the stand behind Daniel Andersson’s goal.
If that was a disappointing way to end the half then it took only four minutes of the re-start to get the Rangers’ fans on their feet again as the Light Blues doubled their lead.
Again a substitute played a key part in the strike, with Michael Mols – on at half-time for Nuno Capucho – slaloming around three half-hearted tackles to set Lovenkrands galloping down the left wing.
The Dane gathered three goals on this ground last season and with a powerful strike that beat Andersson at his near post he soon raised that tally to four goals in just three games at Easter Road.
Hibs seemed temporarily stung by the suddenness of the strike although former Ger Stephen Dobbie forced an acrobatic parry from Klos in a rare attack just after the hour mark.
Rangers had the ball in the net again – Lovenkrands was offside – as play petered out among some pernickety officiating from referee Mike McCurry.
So eager was McCurry to blow on his whistle that you began to wonder if the SFA were paying him on a commission-only basis.
A wayward Kevin Thompson free kick aside, Hibs looked like a beaten team who had seen the wind sucked out of their sails by that killer second goal.
It was never a comfortable afternoon for Rangers by any stretch but they can breathe easy tonight after bringing a difficult week to a close with an impressive away victory that kept up their unbeaten cup record.
HIBS (4-4-2): 13 Andersson; 2 Smith, 5 Murdock, 14 Doumbe, 15 Whittaker; 18 Brown, 8 Brebner (Nicol 13), 19 Thompson, 10 Riordan; 9 O’Connor, 17 Dobbie
Subs not used: Hyldgaard, Baillie, Reid, Orman
Booked: Nicol (17), Brown (25), Thompson (29)
RANGERS (4-4-2): 1 Klos; 2 Ricksen, 15 Khizanishvili, 25 Berg, 16 Vanolil; 30 Burke (Namouchi 31), 12 Malcolm, 23 Arteta, 26 Lovenkrands; 7 Arveladze, 20 Capucho (Mols 46)
Subs not used: McGregor, Ball, Ostenstad
Booked: Capucho (14), Malcolm (48)
Man of the Match: Zurab Khizanishvili