Date: Saturday, 9th December 2006
Kickoff time: 15:00
Against: Boroughmuir
Team: Hawks 1st XV
Location: Home
Competition: Premiership Division 1
Final score: 15 - 14 (won)

Glasgow Hawks 15 - 14 Boro’muir HARRY McARTHUR December 11 2006 Hawks could hardly say that revenge was sweet but it was at least satisfactory. They have waited a long time to get their own back after the 51-21 thrashing they suffered at Meggetland in September. The home players came out looking as though they really meant business and wanted to put right the wrongs of that Edinburgh trip. They even took an early lead, as they did in the first encounter. However, for some reason they went off the boil and although they held a seven-point advantage at the interval, it was really down to superb defensive work. And they had to be solid, as 'Muir were excellent on the counterattack. In fact, Hawks tried to be too adventurous in attack, tending to try to match the Edinburgh style of moving the ball. Right after the break, Boroughmuir got the score their earlier territorial advantage deserved and they levelled the match. It seemed ominous that Hawks were going to slip up again. But all credit to them, they buckled down and started to play their own style of rugby, tightening up around the rucks and mauls by the forwards and good punch running from everyone behind. It took a penalty to edge them in front again but then in the 56th minute, the forwards fashioned a superb score through a perfectly controlled catch-and-drive move from 20 metres out which ended with Greg Francis getting the touch. Murray Strang missed a conversion and when 'Muir hit back just after the restart with Ross Cook converting his own try which began almost from the Boroughmuir goal-line, the edginess crept in once more, but Hawks held out. Boroughmuir's Eamon Jones expressed disappointment at the one-point defeat but declared that Hawks' David Wilson would have been similarly annoyed had his boys lost. The Edinburgh side tried to play too much rugby in the second half when cold hands were finding it difficult to hold the ball. As well as establishing themselves in the top half of the table, Hawks must feel pleased that their squad strength is beginning to pay off. Considering that their back division was deprived of the services of regulars Mark Adamson, Stephen Duffy, Rory Kerr and Kenny Sinclair, it is encouraging that the men who were drafted in were comfortable. New boy Max Evans showed an appetite on the left wing while the versatile Stuart Low showed he has the pace and adventure to fill in at full-back. The journey back across to Edinburgh this evening will be an arduous one for the Boroughmuir team after they narrowly lost a game which they could have won. After a first half in which neither side could gain control of the match, where the ball spent more time being knocked on than kept in hand and the entertainment value was something akin to a traffic jam on the M8, Boroughmuir’s second half effort was almost enough to see them to victory, but a lack of composure at crucial moments robbed them of their chance. At various times in the second period, James White’s pass floated agonisingly out of the reach of scrum half Stuart McGee, who would have been clear in to the line had it stuck, Greig Scott knocked on ten metres from the line after a wonderful, flowing team move, and Greg Cottrell’s stuttering recognition of a gap in the Hawks defence saw it closed before he could exploit it. Had any of these chances been taken, the four points might have been making the trip back east with ’Muir, but equally they could have been on the end of a much worse defeat, two quite frankly astonishing try saving tackles keeping their nose in the game until the end. There isn’t too much can be said about the first half, to be honest. With Boroughmuir playing into the wind, coach Eamon John’s encouragement to keep hold of the ball wasn’t particularly well adhered to, and it was only a lack of control from the hosts that saw the game remain a contest into the second period. At one point, six consecutive breakdowns ended with one side of the other (and on a couple of occasions, both) knocking the ball on, much to the chagrin of all watching. The home side had looked far the more threatening side in the early running, and deservedly opened the scoring after eleven minutes. An unkind soul, given the number of knocks-on in the game, might have suggested that Greg Francis’ superb take and pass in midfield was more of a lucky drop, but it did release full back Stuart Low to make good ground into the Boroughmuir half and feed right winger Steve Gordon who raced over for the score, Murray Strang adding the conversion. Strang had a chance to extend the lead with an ambitious penalty attempt from near the halfway line, but his strike was dragged to the left. Boroughmuir were yet to remind anyone that they were actually present in the game, but a lovely break up the left wing, initiated by Angus Martyn and involving Malcolm Clapperton and Ross Cook deserved more than the eventual turnover in which it ended. The next period of the game was perhaps the scrappiest, with both sides knocking on nigh on every time they got the ball, and neither able to capitalise on the occasional chance that was afforded them. Boroughmuir came closest in that period, stealing the lineout after James White’s thirty metre run had ended in touch, and Stuart McGee breaking between two Hawks defenders before feeding Martyn. The move never got closer than five metres from the line, however, and Hawks were able to clear. The hosts then again cleverly used the wind to move downfield and, had it not been for some dogged defence on their own line, Boroughmuir might have found themselves a score or two worse off, but again they showed their quality from distance as time ticked towards the interval. A lineout on their own five metre line was thrown long to Angus Martyn who burst out of the twenty-two before Cottrell stepped inside Hawks centre Ricky Munday and made it to the halfway line. Clapperton evaded a tap tackle and Elgan O’Donnell worked well with Andy Hadden down the right before Ben Fisher knocked on ten metres from the Hawks line. One can only wonder how the move might have ended had, at any point, Boroughmuir been able to inject any truly devastating pace into it. The start of the second half promised more entertainment, and more encouragement for Boroughmuir than the forty which had just passed as they crossed the line only two minutes into it. After a storming run by Freddie Lait up the right wing, the ball was quickly recycled and moved into the centre where Fisher took it into contact. Again the support was quick, and long passes from Cottrell and Clapperton provided all the space that White needed to score his first try in the Boroughmuir 1st XV. Had Cook slotted a penalty attempt with the last kick of the first half, his superb conversion from the left wing would have put ’Muir in front, instead they had to content themselves with merely being level. Cook’s blushes should have been spared three minutes later though when another left wing try was begging. Martyn’s quick tap penalty on halfway provided the platform, and some excellent handling and continuity rugby from ’Muir saw the ball quickly into the Hawks twenty-two. White left Gordon on the floor with a step off his left foot, and turned to give the pass that McGee, involved in the move no less than four times, was screaming for, but the ball floated cruelly in front of the scrum half and into touch. ’Muir then had to survive through a period in which Hawks regained their ascendancy, and Cook’s remarkable tackle five metres from the line with Munday looking clean through for the score after good work from Gordon kept them level. That wasn’t for long though, Strang adding a penalty to his earlier conversion, though he should have had another but managed for a second time to pull his effort across the posts. Hawks looked set to cross the line again on the hour mark, Low taking Strang’s pass in full flight and streaking his way to the line before being brought down at the last moment by substitute Stephen Ruddick and knocking the ball on as he went to ground. The home team did manage a second try not long afterwards. Cook’s kick clearance to touch was lacking in yards and was returned via way of a driving maul, one which Boroughmuir were helpless to stop as Greg Francis emerged from the bottom as the credited try scorer, though again they couldn’t take full advantage as Strang dragged his effort across the front of the posts. Their extended lead didn’t stick around as Martyn, who was having more and more of an influence on the match as time wore on, went over for his ninth score of the season. A superb kick return between Cook and White took ’Muir up to the Hawks twenty-two, and quick hands from Chris Capaldi fed Martyn. The odds were stacked against the openside flanker as Munday jumped on him, but after shrugging the Hawks centre off, he stepped inside Strang and barged through Francis to score, Cook again adding the difficult conversion. With the game now so finely balanced and time beginning to run out, the nerves were clear in both sides for whom winning has not been as regular a habit as they would have liked this season. Much as they tried, however, neither could affect the scoreboard further, though arguably Boroughmuir came the closer to doing so, and it was the home side’s arms held aloft in celebration come the full time whistle. To turn around a run such as Boroughmuir have been on for the past two months takes one of two things; either a great big slice of freshly served luck, or sheer hard work. It’s the second route that has been chosen for ’Muir, and the signs are certainly there that the work and the effort have been put in since the humiliation they suffered at the hands of Currie. Now all that’s needed to be considered firmly back on track is the nice sight of a winning scoreline or two. Boroughmuir: Ross Cook; Andy Hadden, Malcolm Clapperton Elgan O'Donnell, James White; Greg Cottrell, Stuart McGee John Malakoty, Neil Malloy, Freddie Lait; Greig Scott, Graeme McCallum; Chris Capalsi, Ben Fisher, Angus Martyn. Subs Used: Nigel Drapper, Stephen Ruddick - Not Used: Scott Wilson, Derek No team list has been added yet.

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