Aberdeen GS 24-25 Glasgow Hawks

Fantastic victory after long haul up north built on suffocating defence and unbreakable spirit. Aberdeen undefeated at home and showed why with a combative performance throughout a pulsating 80mins. Despite Aberdeen having majority of ball Hawks looked dangerous every time they attacked . After conceding early penalty for scrum infringement Hawks scored cracking try thru' Sean Murray. Delayed pass from Mike Martin to Rob Wilson and Rob hit brilliant line that stood up the defence and Sean timed it to perfection to take off-load and step full back for great finish. Mike's conv 7-3. Hawks soaked up lot of pressure as Aberdeen looked dangerous with big runners and good off-loads. Missed a pen on 19mins before keeping up defensive strangle-hold , Franco brilliantly disrupting a scrum on halfway before flicking it up to CT and great hands and support lines from Mike , Brodie Clark gave Rob space to get over in corner. Rest of half dominated by Aberdeen attack and abrasive Hawks defence. Various penalties conceded , one kicked on 29mins but line intact until injury time when from wheeled scrum Aberdeen scrambled over. 12-11 at HT.
Intensity cranked right up as both teams refused to give an inch. Great counter attack by Hawks got Tails into space and try looked certain until Rob tackled before catching pass . Yellow card and penalty , 15-11. Teams evened up when Cian Sullivan adjudged to have hand in ruck on goal-line and huge scrum pressure told as Aberdeen scored a pushover. 15-16. Hawks suffocating defence with Kris Boyle and Mike Martin taking the lead kept pressure on. But Mike's line-speed too quick for ref and instead of 60m interception try , penalty conceded. 15-19. Physicality from both teams relentless and Hawks forced pen at ruck 18-19.
Turning point of game came after 67mins , abrasive counter-ruck caused turnover on touchline and as Aberdeen hesitated Sean Yacoubian saw a glimmer of space and raced 50m up touch to make it 23-19. Mike's conv from wide out gave a wee bit of breathing space, 25-19. Aberdeen upped it again and put good phases together to get 2nd row over in corner after 74min, crucially conv just missed! The huge defensive effort was under pressure but one last effort saw ball turned over and the heroics were rewarded. 25-24 final.

This article was posted on 7-Nov-2012, 21:00 by Hugh Barrow.