HAWKS HELD BY VALIANT GRAMMAR
Posted: 15/Feb/06
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Aberdeen Grammar FP held league leaders Glasgow Hawks to a hard earned draw today at Rubislaw, and in so doing kept the BT Premier 1 Championship alive for at least another week. Hawks required full points from this encounter to secure their third title in succession, but Grammar were in no mood to host the party.

If Glasgow Hawks are now to put the championship beyond the reach of Watsonians next weekend they must defeat their Edinburgh city rivals Boroughmuir at Meggetland on 18 February.

Glasgow started the match needing four tries to secure the bonus point that would see them retain their title but, in a game that ebbed and flowed, it was the home side that made the first impression with some dynamic rucking, making ground and delighting the vocal home support.

However, when hawks won the ball they used it well with some accurate touch kicking holding grammar in their own half. While Aberdeen’s pack had the upper hand it was the Glasgow back division who clearly had the advantage, stretching the home defence with intelligent running angles and good support play. This paid dividends in the 8th minute when outside centre Ally Maclay slipped between his midfield opponents to touch down for Hawks first try. Mike Adamson (full back) added the conversion.

A mere two minutes later and the Glaswegians in the crowd must have felt sure they were on course to paint the Granite City red tonight. A chip on from Hawks stand off Murray Strang bounced awkwardly for the defence and found its way to the grateful hands of number 8 Mark Stich who had the simple task of running the ball home. Adamson missed the conversion, but with the score at 0 – 12 after only ten minutes Glasgow must have felt the job was already half done.

Much of the rest o the half was spent in defence for the reigning champions as Grammer reverted to their principle mean of attack, the pick and drive. Hawks dealt with the onslaught well and lost few yards with most of the play taking place on in the middle of the park. Despite seeing their hard fought yards reversed through touch kicks Aberdeen battled on and had their first attacking breakthrough three minutes from the interval when winger Danny Waldman beat two men before being halted by a dangerous tackle from Hawks flanker Ross Macdonald, for which he was sent to the sin bin.

The extra man advantage paid off as grammar piled the pressure on the tiring Hawks defenders and got their reward on half time when a collapsed scrum resulted in a penalty try, converted by stand off Keith Oddie. Half time: 7 – 12


Grammar added a penalty through Oddie shortly after the break to come within two point of the league leaders but this was short lived as flanker Gregg Francis crashed over five minutes extend Hawks lead once again. Crucially, Adamson undercooked the conversion attempt and was forced to watch it rebound off the crossbar.

One try and thirty minutes from the league championship and hawks must almost have been able to taste the champagne, but Aberdeen Grammar raised their game once again, putting in a last half our that showed just how much they are committed to securing Premier 1 rugby in Aberdeen next season.

Dominating for much of the second half through industrious rucking and ferocious tackling, they crossed the line in the 75th minute after scrum half Luke Parsons snatched the ball from a scrum on the visitors’ line to dive over between the posts.

Final score: 17 - 17

This article was posted on 15-Feb-2006, 09:19 by Hugh Barrow.