Hawks left stunned as Satala leads way

HERIOT'S 33-29 GLASGOW HAWKS

MARK ALLAN
AT GOLDENACRE


THE seven-try thriller at Goldenacre had everything to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats for over 80 minutes. That included a hat-trick of tries from Fijian international Apolosi Satala at No.8. Satala, who could well be on his way to Iraq next week with his regiment, the Royal Scots, was not even fully fit and the player had to leave the pitch for five minutes in the first half due to a stomach complaint.

Plenty of quickly recycled ball and an expansive game strategy proved the key to Heriot's hard-won victory. Heriot's coach Iwan Tukalo had, unsurprisingly, a big smile on his face at the final whistle.


"We wanted to play an expansive game and we did. Last time we played Hawks we made too many errors which they were able to gain from. So today we wanted to keep them under pressure and capitalise on their mistakes. Today it was all about maintaining space and keeping our shape."

The home side were the first to get points on the board through a penalty from stand-off Ander Monro after just three minutes.

Heriot's increased their lead two minutes later when Satala got his first try. It came after lock Jamie Osborne made a great break on his own 22, before feeding fullback James Thompson, who took play up to ten metres out before handing on to Satala for the score in the corner to make it 8-0.

Fifteen minutes had been played before the visitors got themselves on the scoreboard thanks to sustained pressure close to the Heriot's line.

Hawks No.8 Mark Sitch picked up from the base of a scrum to burst round the side and feed scrum-half Richard McKnight for the score. Stand-off Mike Adamson's missed conversion made it 8-5.

Satala got his second after 18 minutes when hooker Neil Meikle took a short tap penalty for an offside offence just inside Hawks' 22 and fed the Fijian.

Monro's second missed conversion left it at 13-5. Adamson slotted a 30-metre penalty to make it 13-8 and his team took the lead for the first time on the 35-minute mark when a ball was hacked on by McKnight and chased by fullback Murray Strang for the touchdown. Adamson's conversion made it 13-15 but the lead was short lived with a penalty from Monro just on half-time letting the home side retake the lead at 16-15.

After the re-start Monro pushed Heriot's further ahead with another penalty, making it 19-15 and then Satala got try number three just minutes later. He was just outside his own half when he burst clear and then stretched his legs to take play up to the Hawks' 22.

The No.8 was halted but not before passing to full-back Thomson who made it almost to the line but Satala was ready and waiting to take the ball back and touch down. Monro's conversion made it 26-15.

Some good handling and running from Hawks five minutes later let them claw seven points back thanks to a try from lock Sandy Warnock and Adamson's conversion.

That made it 26-22 and then, in the 53rd minute referee Bruce Devin, who had already made a number of controversial decisions, awarded a penalty try to Hawks after Heriot's were judged to have collapsed a maul on their own line.

Rather harshly, Devin also yellow-carded Heriot's flanker Scott Newlands for the same incident. That, plus the subsequent conversion from Adamson, gave the lead back to Hawks at 26-29. But the home side replied in the best fashion possible when two minutes later a great passage of handling play took them up to the Hawks line for Osborne to score in the corner. Monro's conversion made it 33-29 and that was how it remained, despite 25 minutes in which both sides fluffed a number of chances.

Heriot's: J Thompson; C Bruce, N De Luca, J Houston, S Manning; A Monro, M Goldie; M Welch, N Meikle, C Sinclair (S Mustard, 53), J Osborne, E Grewar, S Newlands, A Satala (R Simms, 24-30), T McVie.

Glasgow Hawks: M Strange; A MacLay, S Smith, S Duffy, I Kennedy, M Adamson; R McKnight (S Biggart, 41), E Milligan; M Smith, G McFadyen, S Warnock (S Begley, 69), R Maxton, S Forrest, M Sitch, N McKenzie.

Referee: Bruce Devin (Portobello)

Scorers: Heriots - Tries: A Satala (3), J Osborne. Cons: A Monro (2). Pens: A Monro (3). Glasgow Hawks - Tries: R McKnight, M Strang, S Warnock, penalty try. Cons: M Adamson (3). Pens: M Adamson.

This article was posted on 8-Jan-2006, 09:05 by Hugh Barrow.