AYR under 18’s v HAWKS under 18’s.
3rd Time in One Season.

Well, a 2nd trip to Ayr, to face the “runaway” league winners was going to show just how much the troops had learned……………

Déjà Vu, plus ca change, plus reste la meme chose.

Due to the usual Scottish winter / spring weather, and unavailability of pitches, the debutante Hawks under 18’s played their “home” semi final “away” at Millbrae.
Our gracious hosts were only too keen to offer the use of their facilities for this match, this would be the third time the teams would meet this season.
Our more avid readers will recall our first meeting resulted in a quite devastating home loss at Old Anniesland, where we felt we had “aided and abetted” our visitors in their victory. Our second meeting in the league, away, ended with a heartbreaking one point loss. This followed a quite extraordinary fight back in the closing stages, after again several self inflicted body blows.

Our opponents’ game plan was clear to see from the size of the forwards warming up prior to kick off. It never ceases to amaze me how much young men of their age can grow over the space of a few short months. This was set to be a physical forward onslaught from the get go, and so it proved to be. Ayr piled on the pressure at every opportunity through their big front eight unit (perhaps they discovered the nutritional value of biltong during their sojourn in South Africa), but they certainly played to their strengths that evening. From wherever they found the strength and resolve, Hawks dug deep, again and again, repelling numerous Ayr set pieces and forays in their own 22. Although all the squad members deserve praise for their parts in this game, I must commend the forwards for a quite remarkable performance in standing up to a much larger pack. They did not just “play smart” and move them about, our opponents to their credit did not allow this, but managed to match them. Even winning a couple of scrums against the head! When did you last hear of such a thing?

The big difference was down to our execution, when we won ball it was used well and moved out to space quickly. Our error rate was relatively low in comparison to earlier encounters. The Hawks backs were clinical and precise when they eventually got possession, and converted a high percentage of this to points. The boys sevens experience was utilised to the full in this match. Long periods of bruising heavyweights’ battles were followed by quick sharp incisive backs incursions.

A more and more demoralised opposition could not quite come to grips with this game, and a Hawks victory duly ensued by 33 point to 11.
This was almost a replica of their losing score at the start of the season and the boys more than deserved this.

A Cup Final awaits, if a suitable venue and time can be found before this age groups’ inaugural season together is over. Their progress and togetherness has been rewarded by their ever improving performances. The coaches, parents, squad and club should all be proud of how well they have done this year.
The Major

This article was posted on 16-May-2013, 08:18 by Hugh Barrow.