The Sunday Times December 18, 2005

Ayr 6 Hawks 8: Hawks seize their chance
Mark Palmer at Millbrae



GLASGOW HAWKS sent out a statement of intent here despite only managing to make themselves heard at the death. A second defeat in as many weeks was what the defending champions deserved, but they ended up coming away with the sort of win that implies a third successive crown is still theirs for the losing.
They had trailed from the sixth minute to the 82nd, making little attacking impact even in the 27 minutes Ayr played with 14 men, until a wayward hand in a ruck allowed Mike Adamson to effect the larceny with a faultlessly executed penalty.



The Millbrae team will struggle to rationalise a first home loss of the season, but at least they showed us why it isn’t a familiar experience. The Premier One title race would have had a spring in its step had Ayr taken the points their inspired game merited, but at least it has stopped being the procession it was for the first 12 weeks of the season, all of which Hawks marked with victories.

Getting it all their own way never looked likely yesterday. It was real death-row stuff, the forwards rarely persuaded to let go of the ball, but the home side had the momentum by undermining Hawks in their traditional area of strength, the set piece.

Andrew Kelly, the Ayr prop, provided some real mettle in the scrum, utterly dominating Gordon MacFadyen, his opposing tight-head, and causing him to bring the rest of the front row down with him on two occasions. At the lineout, too, Scott Lines, the captain, and Damian Kelly, were scooping balls out of the sky to which they had no genuine claim.

While both teams’ backs were overtly neglected, Ayr did sometimes manage to engage Mike Roberts, the Glasgow Warriors wing drafted in to continue his rehabilitation from a shoulder injury. His skipping break caught Hawks both unawares and offside, Jamie Noonan tinkling over the penalty. The stand-off doubled his tally with a much more demanding kick from way out left.

For all Ayr’s ascendancy in virtually every aspect of the game at this point, you always had an inkling of what might be coming. Hawks’ preferred method of killing has often been to toy with their prey, before finally doing the necessary quickly and mercilessly.

So things looked to be going here, with the Old Anniesland side springing a try with the first sighting of their back line. Following a loose clearing kick from the Ayr 22, Ally MacLay, the wing, zoomed off down the middle, eventually indulging Adamson, who had broken on his inside. The stand-off set up Colin Shaw to go over in the near corner.

Ayr, however, straightened themselves out again immediately after the restart, with a newly imaginative style. Roberts was at the forefront of the action, feeding off some swift and slick handling presented by the half-backs, Noonan and AJ McFarlane.

His growing influence upon proceedings could only be stunted by artificial means. Already known to Peter Allan, the referee, after spending time in the sin-bin in the first half for twice killing the ball, he was red-carded on the back of a petulant reaction to Hawks’ polite suggestion that he give up the ball when they shunted him into touch.



STAR MAN: Scott Lines (Ayr)

Ayr: McClung; McLaughlan, Nicol, Lavelle, Roberts; Noonan, McFarlane; Kelly, Fenwick, Logan, Lines, Kelly, Eddie, Kellow, Tippett. Replacements used: Taylor, Jerr, Burke

Glasgow Hawks: Shaw; MacLay, S Smith, Duffy, Kennedy; Adamson, Biggart; Milligan, M Smith, MacFadyen, Warnock, Maxton, Francis, Sitch, McKenzie. Replacements used: McKnight, Dearlove

This article was posted on 18-Dec-2005, 23:24 by Hugh Barrow.