Hawks U18 20 - Ayr 10
Try scorers John Kelly and Jared Reekie

In the Scottish Rugby Under 18 League, Ayr had played 10 and won 10. Before today they had scored 389 points with only 81 conceded. Hawks on the other hand had beaten Falkirk before Christmas to record their first win of the season and bring their points difference up to ..... minus 88.

On paper this was looking like a fairly one-sided encounter.

It was a home fixture for Hawks but since Old Anniesland is waterlogged the game was switched to the 3G pitch at Lochinch Police Club with kickoff put back to 4pm. A great venue, under floodlights, with perfect underfoot conditions and no weather. The stage was set.

After Hawks had retained the ball competently enough for most of the first 10 minutes without making any real breakthrough, Ayr won a penalty from only their second visit to the Hawks half and put the first 3 points on the board.

Things looked even more ominous on 17 minutes when Hawks went down to 14 men. A reckless charge by a Hawks player who then ducked under Ayr’s catcher as he leapt for the ball at the restart gave the referee an easy decision to reach for his yellow card.

Ayr have undoubted talent throughout their side and threatened to unleash it at times with clever running angles and slick off-loads. However, too many unforced errors combined with good pressure from Hawks stopped just about every threatening attack.

It was to be Hawks’ day. A well timed pass on half-way set John Kelly off up the left touchline to score the first try and 2 points from the conversion added to 3 more from a penalty saw Hawks lead 10-3 at the interval.

In the second half, Hawks scored again. From a lineout in the Ayr ‘22’, Hawks set a driving maul but couldn’t advance. When Johnny Sim broke away with the ball, most regular spectators thought he would go over from 4 metres – his normal strike range. He was going sideways though so passed to Andrew Simmers instead. When he was tackled, well controlled ruck ball was delivered to Jared Reekie allowing him to dart over close to the posts. With the conversion and another penalty taking the score to 20-3 with only a few minutes left on the clock, the game was effectively won.

To their credit, Ayr did not give up and scored a good converted try when they pinned Hawks back into their ‘22’.

Ayr nearly scored again with an incisive break up the left. As their final pass looked to have beaten the Hawks defence, the referee brought them back for a forward pass and then blew his whistle for full time.

A big thank you from the U18 coaches and players for the large travelling support made up of parents, friends, committee members, 1st XV players and management who attended and cheered the boys on.

This article was originally posted on 4-Jan-2014, 18:24 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Russell Sim on 4-Jan-2014, 23:31.