Firstly, congratulations to Marr on winning the league. Marr have had a great season, playing a similar brand of expansive rugby to our own and have been clinical in rattling up the tries and bonus points with a superior and ultimately insurmountable points differential being the deciding factor.


As Head Coach Hamilton and Presi Cameron saluted "Quietly" to the GHK throng and strode out of Viper into the early Sunday morning air (with reputations just about intact and heads held high), the disappointment of seeing the league title slip from the team's grasp seemed a distant memory amidst reflections on an outstanding season for GHK, creating a little bit of history in the process, by remaining unbeaten throughout the 18 game league campaign with 17 wins and a draw.


GHK welcomed Annan to Old Anniesland for this final match knowing that a win with a bonus point was the minimum required. Overturning the points differential between GHK and Marr would need a clear 130 points! The Accies travelled down the M77 with every GHK supporter willing them to perform a minor miracle by either beating Marr or holding them to a no bonus point win. Considering what was at stake for Marr and their winning form, this would be a virtually impossible task and so it was to prove as word filtered through to OA that Marr had indeed claimed a fourth, and title winning, try.

However, those at OA were treated to a feast of GHK running rugby as a reminder to us all of just how good this team is and how far they have come since finishing 3rd in last year's "lower" league and securing the final spot in elevation to West 1.

The game did not get off to the best of starts as a penalty to Annan and 0-3 on 2 mins made the mountain a little higher. However, this just seemed to settle the nerves and spur GHK on. Darcy got the scoreboard moving on 7 mins with a nicely taken pick up and try from a 5 metre scrum and Mikey Borthwick added another on 11 mins when George Oommen took a quick tap penalty and followed up a neat kick through from Danny Campbell to dive on the loose ball and pop up to Mikey who ran in to score. 10 - 3. GHK were now dominating possession but Annan were holding their defence and it took a further 11 mins for GHK to add to the tally, although when it came it was a cracker. Tony Herron picked up a long clearance kick, immediately set off on one of his trademark runs, beat 3 or 4 players and went outside the last man to score in the corner. Davey Reed converted to make it 17 - 3. Tony did it again 5 mins later when good ruck ball was won and spread quickly through the hands for him to cut in at pace, wrong footing two defenders to score at the posts for another converted try to bring up the bonus point at 24 - 3 in 28 mins.
Gregor Hollerin then entered the fray, coming on for Fraser Hastie. On 35 mins a pick up under scrum pressure by Darcy was fed to Mikey Aird who drew the defence and gave a well timed pass to Tony who got in to the gap and fed Danny Campbell who ran in to score; 31 - 3. GHK scored again straight from the restart when Gordi Reid made a lovely break , passing to Mike Borthwick, to Tony and on to Darcy who finished off the score; 36 - 3.
A slight blip was to follow when Annan took a quick tap penalty to feed their speedy winger who cut back in and fed support to score to make it 36 - 8 at half time.
GHK made amends within 5 mins of the restart when Tony latched on to a pass after a good forward drive to score a converted try; 43 - 8.
At this point word came through that Marr had scored their fourth try bonus point against Accies and perhaps the body language on the touchline filtered on to the pitch as Annan then enjoyed a 20 min period of possession and pressure around the GHK 22 but as has been the case all season, the GHK defence stood firm and having soaked up the pressure GHK finally won some useable ball which was moved left to Tony who, running out of space on the stand touchline, put a clever kick through which bounced nicely for Russell Johnstone to scamper 30 metres to score at the posts. Tony converted to bring up the 50 pts; 50 - 8 in 66 mins. Another piece of great GHK handling from their own 22 again put Tony in to the gap but the covering winger put in a well timed tackle to prevent the score. However a couple of minutes later a loose kick was taken by Tony in his 22; a couple of shimmies and a dummy got him through and Gregor Hollerin was on his shoulder to take a neat inside pass to run in from the Annan 22 to score at the posts. Danny Campbell converted to make the final score 57 - 8.
This was vintage GHK.


All involved both on and off the pitch can be very proud of their contribution to what has undoubtedly been a tremendous season for the team and Club. The team spirit is exceptional and at times had to be at its very strongest to pull through some knife edge games. My thanks on your behalf to Club Captain Danny Hoffmann and Vice Captain Gordi Reid who have led by example and for the unstinting commitment and encouragement from Head Coach Kenny Hamilton and the coaching team (1st and 2nd XV's) as well as a big thank you to our physios Eilidh McClure and Gill Watt who have carried out the weekly patch repairs, massaging sore muscles and bruised egos !
The 2nd's still have several postponed matches to play and the 1st's will have a "friendly" or two over the coming weeks, along with various sevens tournaments, to keep everyone in shape for our end of season trip to play our old friends, Instonians, in Belfast.



Many thanks to all who give of their time for the benefit of the Club at every level. It is my privilege and good fortune to be Club President at such a time.



EC
Presi

This article was posted on 13-Mar-2012, 09:12 by Hugh Barrow.