An Incredible Cup Tie
 
This was a real typical ding dong cup tie that ended all square after 20 minutes of extra time but Whitecraigs progressed to the final against Ayr by virtue of scoring 4 tries to Hawks 3.The sides were tied 16-16 at half time, 26-26 at full time and 29-29 at full-time and throughout you couldn't pass a sheet of tissue paper between them. It was a battle of a heavier Whitecraigs pack against a quicker Hawks back division and in the end the telling factor was probably the strength of the Whitecraigs rolling maul and pick and drive when they were near the line.
The day started badly for Hawks when experienced hooker Eric Milligan went down with a chest infection and shortly before kick off Hawks got a call from Glasgow Warriors pulling prop forward George Hunter out of the team to sit on the bench at Firhill. This certainly did not help the Hawks coaches who were without two of the sides more influential players Dean Kelbrick and Rory McKay who had played in the Club International on Friday evening. Gavin McDonald was also missing having taken a knock last week and Aubrey Horton the full back was away on business. Nevertheless Hawks played better that they had last week against Hawick and were never out of contention at any stage during this game.
Hawks have recently developed two bad habits. Firstly they start badly and concede early scores, usually quite soft ones, and secondly, in the final stages of games when generally they are all over the opposition, they fail to score tries due to either bad decision making or being over anxious. This was certainly the case yesterday when they leaked a try and a long range penalty to go 8-0 down early in the half. They quickly got the points back with a marvellous bit of jinky running by Kerr Gossman for a try in the left hand corner and two penalties from the boot of Mikey Martin.
After that they again conceded a try from an excellent controlled Whitecraigs drive and a penalty,
only to score another try from a set piece move that put left wing Tom Steven over in the corner.
The second half followed the same pattern with Whitecraigs scoring two tries to another fine effort from Kerr Gossman and a conversion and penalty by Mikey Martin.
Whitecraigs are a physical side and shortly before full time their prop forward was red carded for a stamping incident spotted by the touch judge.
Hawks should have taken advantage of this but the game went to uncontested scrums much to Hawks disadvantage.
In the first period of extra time Whitecraigs tried everything to get a score including a penalty attempt from inside their own half. Eventually they were rewarded for their efforts by a long range drop goal. Hawks totally dominated possession in the final 10 minutes but stubborn defence kept them out. Finally with minutes left Mikey Martin levelled the scores with a penalty from close in. He should of course have gone for touch in the hope that Hawks got the clinching try.
For the neutral supporter this was a good advert for Club rugby. At the end Hawks supporters were downcast while Whitecraigs supporters were jubilant.
Hawks can now concentrate on the task of remaining in Premier 1 and have a crucial game against Stewarts/Melville next Saturday

This article was originally posted on 26-Feb-2012, 13:38 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 26-Feb-2012, 13:46.