Glasgow Hawks 10 Heriots 31

“The long and winding road that leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before it always leads me here
Leads me to your door”

The match is over, the cause is lost and the season is put to bed until the players return in late June to prepare for the battles to come.
If you are looking for a detailed account of the match then Alasdair Reid has one in the “Herald” and Iain Morrison has one in “Scotland on Sunday” and both are online. I could do a summary; the boys were beaten by the better side on the day, they put their bodies on the line, they fought well at the start of the second half showing they were nobodies’ patsy but in the end they lost two late tries when their legs were heavy late in the game. Although the result was fair, the score was flattering.
Instead, I think, we should look at the big picture. When Hawks met Heriots yesterday it was the end of a long journey, starting when things look bleakest two seasons ago. As the club went down the naysayers were out in force and even the optimists struggled to raise a smile. But that journey, over two seasons, finished yesterday with Hawks playing in the Scottish Cup Final against the odds.
Dwell upon that for a moment, then hopefully the size of that achievement will come home. In the intervening period the coaches have taken a group of players who have brought a steely determination and moulded them from a team who were in a dogfight, with a strong Hawick side and a Watsonians team bought at a heavy price, which they came out on top 12 months ago. Then on promotion, this side took on 3 of the top 4 sides in Scotland in a Cup run, through the last 8 until they lost to Heriot’s yesterday.
The defeat yesterday will stay in the memory for some time but it remains only 80 minutes, it shouldn’t be 80 minutes that overshadows the achievements of this year. It was a defeat to a side which on another day, the 1st of March for example, could have gone a different way. The road which led to Cumbernauld saw Hawks put the 3rd team in last years Championship out of the tournament. Ayr were also Scottish Cup holders and it fell to Hawks to prise it from their hands and end their dreams of back to back Cup wins. That win sent out a statement of intent that Hawks weren’t here simply to make up the numbers in the fixture list in Premier 1, but were here with the intention of challenging for Silverware.
Then at Netherdale, the same battling spirit was in evidence when with the scoreboard and the clock against them Jack Steele acting as a cypher for his team’s ambitions put over a 48 metre kick which secured the place in the Cup Final. In this act it also signalled that this team, as they had shown all season on many occasions, had the fitness, the resilience and the determination to fight to the very last blast of the referee’s whistle. There were days when Hawks soared such as Malleny Park and others such as away to Gala where it was a struggle. There were games like the one at Goldenacre where 6 tries flew in in a show of defiance and brilliance and where the players took hold of the Bill McLaren Shield, a trophy which they will defend in the league from the first home tie next year.
The measure of this side is in 2 seasons of blood sweat and tears is not in 80 minutes of rugby. It is in performances and heroics the length and breadth of Scotland across 2 long seasons. In rain-swept Rubislaw or in the mud a glaur of Poynder Park on pitches more suited to tractors than to fleet of foot backs. A match can be won by a team with a single piece of individual brilliance, a season requires a team.
From every corner of the club the last two seasons represent an act of defiance. As the Second XV conquered all before them, they put a marker out to say that “We are Hawks and we are here to stay” as much as any result for the First team did. Defiance ran as a word through the whole club as much as the word Ayr does through a stick of rock. "Més que un club", the motto of Barcelona, More than a Club, over the past travails and the highs and lows Hawks have forged something which is in it’s own way the same.
80 minutes of rugby yesterday was just that, 80 minutes of rugby but the previous two seasons were so much more. At the end of the summer coming there will be another season, in the winter other cup campaign and in the Spring with an iron will a trip to Murrayfield. These things are in the hands of the team.
What has happened over the last two seasons is more, so much more, this team has turned to the whole of Scotland and said, “We are back! Did you miss us?” It has been a long road to get to this spot and the difficulty should not be forgotten, but this is not the end far from it, it is the beginning!

“Anyway you'll never know the many ways I've tried
And still they lead me back to the long and winding road.”

This article was posted on 20-Apr-2014, 14:33 by Hugh Barrow.