The Scotsman
Sat 9 Apr 2005

Hawick still in shock after 80-point defeat

DAVID FERGUSON

THE proud town of Hawick, one of the traditional hotbeds of Scottish rugby, has been in a state of shock this week as the locals digested news they can still barely believe.

Down at their Mansfield Park home last Saturday, once the fortress of the mighty Green Machine, visitors Glasgow Hawks inflicted a beating on the home heroes like no beating the town has ever suffered in sport. An astonishing eighty points were conceded, a figure which is sure to become the stuff of Borders folklore.

The 19-80 defeat was a result which secured a second successive league championship for the Hawks , and the gloss of that achievement shielded many from Hawick anguish. However, after the dust settled, the number of points conceded by the famous Green Machine was matched in its enormity only by the sense of humiliation felt by the team’s supporters.

And support for rugby runs deeper in Hawick than in most towns. Passions here are intertwined with the game of rugby, and have been for well over a century.

When the club dominated the Scottish game with ten championships in the space of 14 years in the 1970s and 1980s, the town became renowned throughout the rugby world as the standard-bearer of Scottish rugby. Their stars of the time - the likes of Jim Renwick, Alan Tomes and Colin Deans - were not just respected in Hawick or the Borders, but throughout the world. They were seen as players who typified the grit, skill and dedication of Scottish rugby.

In Hawick, over many generations, there have been precious few families without ties to the rugby club and the health of the town has seemed inextricably linked with the mood at Mansfield Park. The rugby team eventually rode to the rescue of the town after it had been ripped apart in the mid-1990s by the Common Riding fiasco and the British media turned the spotlight on the festival’s decision not to allow women to take part. Back-to-back league championships launched the town into the new century, and with Hawick players featuring heavily in the professional teams, there was a sense that they had turned the corner.

Such confidence came crashing to earth as the scoreboard at Mansfield Park ticked over last Saturday and the points against them continued to pile up. Hawick conceded forty-five in the first half alone, eventually losing the game 19-80. For their former Scotland and British and Irish Lions prop Hugh McLeod, it was heart-breaking.

To see the team being royally stuffed was bad enough, but insult was added to injury yesterday when the local paper, the Hawick News, revealed that while his teammates were left battered and bruised, strewn across Mansfield Park by the predatory Hawks, Graham Scott was sitting in a hair salon having dreadlocks put in!

Scott, not a fancy-dan back, but of what was once known as the front row union, had booked a seven-hour appointment and was reported to have told the Hawick management he would not change it for fear of losing money.

McLeod said: "The result was a total embarrassment for the club and the town of Hawick and I couldn’t believe it. I can never remember Hawick losing anything close to 80 points.

"I was shocked to hear that our captain Roddy Deans had chosen to go on holiday. As for a prop going off to have his hair done and so not being able to play ... what is the world coming to? I came off my honeymoon to play because I felt I couldn’t let the boys and the town down.

"The Hawks were a good side and they were far more physical and much too powerful for us, but, for all the possession they had, I felt they should really have scored a lot more. I’d have been disappointed if I’d been the Hawks coach because there should have been over 100 points."

McLeod was credited by many as having laid the foundations for success at Hawick, having returned from a Scotland and Lions tour with new ideas on coaching which he then instilled into the Hawick sides. A former committee man and president, McLeod remains a familiar figure at Mansfield Park, but he was almost lost for words this week.

Another famous former Hawick player, Bill McLaren, was also stunned by the scoreline. He said: "I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the result. It was quite unbelievable and I was absolutely shattered.

"I never thought I’d see a Hawick team lose 50 points never mind 80 and it’s a terrible blow to Hawick prestige. If you’d predicted that here last week people would have laughed and taken money off you. Hawick has, quite rightly, regarded itself among the leading lights in Scottish rugby and in all the long history it’s never been as desperate as 80 points.

"There was a period in the 1930s, I think, that was very difficult, but we never suffered a loss like that. But the other side of the coin is that more and more clubs are improving and challenging the old clubs who dominated and that’s good for Scottish rugby.

"But, in Hawick, rugby means so much - we’re brought up to believe we are special - and without success the confidence takes a dent. Success breeds success, as we’ve found, but we’ll just have to haul these boys up by their stocking tops and get on with it."

Events must be kept in perspective. Hawick dished out terrible beatings to opponents during the days when they dominated Scottish rugby, with 12 championship titles to their name and the same number before the leagues became official in 1974. But there is concern that this result could mark the end of Hawick as a force.

Hawick’s population has changed with the decline of the knitwear industry forcing thousands to seek new employment elsewhere. And when people leave Hawick for cities and higher education they tend not to return. They have also lost more players to the professional ranks than most Borders clubs.

But Scottish rugby’s problems have also hit Hawick hard, with the town suffering an almost 50 per cent reduction in the number of players in the past decade. In the early 1990s the town still had four ‘junior’ clubs operating below the Hawick 1st XV - Hawick Trades, Hawick Linden, Hawick YM and Hawick Harlequins.

They, in turn, had two and sometimes three XVs playing every weekend. Below them, the youths had Hawick PSA and Wanderers to choose from, while Hawick Albion provided another avenue for those of a younger age.

Hawick brought on board their own second XV at Mansfield Park and they all co-existed for a short time, but this season the Trades shut its doors because of a lack of numbers, and the remaining clubs fielded just one side each week.

There is some hope for Hawick, however. Hawick Wanderers beat the PSA in this season’s Scottish under-18 final at Murrayfield, while Hawick Albion are the reigning Scottish under-15 champions. These sides also have a clutch of talented players helping drive representative success with the Borders and Scotland, and if they stay local they will surely help to improve the club’s fortunes.

And for those with a sense of local rivalries, there is still something to celebrate in Hawick this season. Gala, their age-old enemies, are on their way to the second division again.

This article was posted on 9-Apr-2005, 08:31 by Hugh Barrow.