Date: Saturday, 21st April 2007
Kickoff time: 15:00
Against: West of Scotland
Team: Hawks 1st XV
Location: Away
Competition: Cup-Shield-Bowl-Plate
Final score: 19 - 17 (won)

John Beattie was on a mission from God HAWKS EDGE PAST GALLANT WEST Posted: 21/Apr/07 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- West of Scotland 17 Glasgow Hawks 19 Burnbrae this afternoon was the backdrop to a timely reminder of what's good about rugby as Glasgow Hawks booked their place – mark you only just – in next month's National Cup Final at Murrayfield. There they will face a team from a lower division and judging by the handful West of Scotland proved today, then Edinburgh Accies – who have won promotion from Premier Division 2 and who added the scalp of Boroughmuir 38-14 in their semi-final to those of Currie and Hawick – will approach that contest with eager anticipation. Hawks coach David Wilson had the good grace to acknowledge at full-time that in many respects this was West's day and knows his pack will face a searching examination from Accies. What a show West put on off the park. There was a crowd of more than 1,000, animated and involved, with their second and third XV giving a raucous and good-natured vocal lead. Everywhere you looked around the ground there were families. There were plenty of weel-kent faces too, such as the former West, Scotland and Lions prop Sandy Carmichael. And the over-whelming emotion of the day – fun. Now the cynics might point to the final scoreboard but West all but pulled if off on the park too. Their coach, John Beattie reasoned: "We were never going to win it, but, gee, we came close. We did play with a lot of pride. These guys simply went out and tried to have fun with their friends." Today's initial salvoes suggested an upset might be looming. Inside the first minute the Gordon Bulloch/Guy Perrett lineout combination that's been 15 years in the moulding was the prelude to a home driving maul. Hawks infringed and a penalty to touch set up the territory from which, from a subsequent lineout take by Scott MacKechnie, Bulloch blazed away on the narrow side, allowing his lively front-row colleague Elliot McLaren to bulldoze over for the opening try. West, enjoyed the early territory, although they were being asked to make a lot of tackles and when Murray Strang's intelligent clearance kick saw Rory Kerr win a penalty through his belligerent follow-up, the visitors sniffed an opening. Sure enough, off a counter-attack from a stray West clearance, John Fitzpatrick, in classic back-row mode, supported on the inside for Steve Gordon to send his flanker in for the equalising try. Mike Adamson converted and Hawks led 7-5 after 14 minutes. Hawks got continuity going and profited as Strang's break set up Gordon for their second try, Adamson again adding the extras, and, before the break, makeshift lock Niall Caddell had crashed over for their third, prop Nick Cox having played an important part in the build-up. Either side of the interval, which arrived with Hawks leading 19-5, Adamson miscued penalties and the injury problems which had effectively compelled Hawks to field two back-row forwards in the second-row were exacerbated with front-row casualties too, which necessitated the game going to uncontested scrums in the closing stages. West sought to rumble through their pack and enjoyed the bulk of the pressure in the second-half. When a score eventually materialised it was in the 72nd minute. Caddell had been yellow-carded for an offside in his own 22 and from a quick tap penalty West lock Jan Voss dotted down. Fraser Sinclair's conversion narrowed the gap to 12-17. Inevitably, that triggered a dramatic finale. Two minutes into stoppage time, McLaren and MacKechnie made inroads and when West switched play right to left, Sinclair picked up a pass of his toes and good hands sent left wing Ben Wright thundering over for the try. Alas for home hopes Sinclair's conversion went astray and Hawks held on to ensure their fifth cup final visit to Murrayfield. In today's other semi-final Edinburgh Accies points in their 38-14 win against Boroughmuir at Raeburn Place came from tries by Paul Loudon, Ross Brown, Michael Campbell, Gavin Douglas and Nathan Pike. Douglas added two conversions, two penalties and a drop-goal. Boroughmuir's tries came from Angus Martyn and Neil Malloy with Scott Hadden and Ross Cook goaling a conversion apiece. No team list has been added yet.

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