SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS

Hawks labour to win
IAIN MORRISON AT MALLENY PARK
CURRIE 7
GLASGOW HAWKS 23

GLASGOW Hawks took another big step towards their third successive title at Malleny Park aided, as they were, by Biggar's win over their nearest rivals, Watsonians. However, they made heavy weather of yesterday's task because not until the final quarter of the match did they put any daylight between them and the side that knocked them out of the cup last weekend. Eventually, last Saturday's 4-1 try count was reversed.


"I take my hat off to the guys because they rose to the challenge today," said Hawks' coach David Wilson. "We knew what had to be done and we went out there and did it. We had a fairly frank talk at training and, as a result, we played with the required intensity today. I thought that we commanded the game."

Still, the visitors failed to score a single point in an abysmal first 40 minutes and Currie turned round 7-0 to the good. The second half was a different story, with lock Richard Maxton opening their account with a touchdown shortly after the restart and fly-half Murray Strang's interception opening the floodgates on 68 minutes.

Two more tries followed Strang's in quick succession. Ally MacLay claimed the next after Currie winger Chris Browne unwisely ran the ball out of defence before losing it. Scrum-half Ian Monaghan then grabbed the third and celebrated scoring on his old stamping ground with an impressive swallow dive in the corner.

The match also saw the return to action of Edinburgh's South African lock Fergus Pringle, who showed no ill- effects from his recent well-publicised troubles after coming off the bench for the home team and putting in a decent shift at the coalface.

Early on he helped Currie dominate Hawks, who would have been grateful for the win, never mind the four-try bonus point, during a difficult opening half. However, Currie's third-minute try was to prove their only points of the afternoon and coach Ally Donaldson would have gladly swapped last Saturday's cup win for a much-needed league result yesterday.

That opening try came from prop Andy Reekie after his forwards drove a five-yard line-out over the Hawks' line.

Both teams had their moments in the first half but neither was able to take them and that is at least partly due to the greasy conditions. In weather that invited plenty of kicking, Murray Strang will have been disappointed with his execution. The Hawks fly-half picked out Currie full-back Douglas Flockhart with unerring accuracy.

His second-half try made amends and, in fairness, Strang twice made superb solo breaks. Had winger Ricky Munday been able to hang on to at least one of his passes, the breaks might have resulted in something tangible on the score board. Instead, the moves petered out with the wet ball slipping out of hands, which pretty well sums up the first 40 minutes for Hawks. If they had a point for every spilled pass they would have been out of sight inside the first quarter of this match but instead they were defending a slender one-point lead with 12 minutes left on the clock.

With the first half winding down, Currie carved out a cast iron chance to double their lead when No.8 Ross Weston charged through the middle of the field before feeding Gavin Scott 15 metres from the Hawks line. The little hooker had a sniff of the line and glory but that was before his opposite number Sean Fell caught the veteran from behind.

It was a bad-tempered match with fights breaking out sporadically amidst the rugby. Referee Iain Ramage showed two yellow cards, both for stamping, but several more could have been brandished had he a mind. Currie captain Andy Adam was first to the bin and Fell followed shortly after but only after the vocal local support had "persuaded" the linesman to intervene when he obviously had absolutely no intention of flagging the incident.

Maxton's well-worked try three minutes after the restart narrowed Hawks' deficit to just two points. Adamson failed to convert and the full-back ended up missing five of his six pots at goal. It speaks volumes about Hawks' low confidence coming into this game that, when awarded a penalty, instead of kicking to the corner and going for the drive, Hawks opted to kick for goal. Adamson fluffed the first penalty attempt on 53 minutes but the second was successful shortly after and Hawks had a lead on 55 minutes that they never relinquished.

Currie proved little better at playing catch-up rugby in the second half than their visitors had been in the first. Their best platform to manufacture a score came when an Adamson mistake gifted the home team a scrum under their opponents' posts, but visiting scrum-half Monaghan stole the ball from the No.8's feet to save the day. Ker also missed a speculative penalty when his side was trailing by just one point.

Instead, at the other end of the field, Strang's interception sparked three tries in six minutes to settle this match and, in all likelihood, the championship.

Currie: D Flockhart, G Caldwell, A Muir, G Moffat, C Browne, M Ker, G Calder, A Reekie, G Scott, A Edwards, P Huntley, A Adam, B Millier, M Cairns, R Weston.

Glasgow Hawks: M Adamson, R Munday, A MacLay, S Smith, S Strang, I Monaghan (R McKnight 75 min), E Milligan (P Dalton 70 min), S Fell, R Begley (N Cadelle 60 min) R Maxton, S Warnock, N MacKenzie, M Sitch.

Referee: I Ramage

Scorers: Currie - Try: Reekie. Con: Ker.
Hawks - Tries: Maxton, Strang, Monaghan, MacLay. Pen: Adamson.

This article was posted on 29-Jan-2006, 08:55 by Hugh Barrow.