The first game of the season and a derby match. Forget Boks v ABs, Wales
v England. Hawks v Heriots is a serious game.

The summer merry-go-round depleted core players from both teams.
Heriots' new coach was originally being touted as a strengthening of the
Hawks effort. Clearly there were plenty of factors present to gee up
both teams and sets of supporters.

For Hawks, the added burden of an away tie, so what happened?

Well, I'll tell you. It was a much better, and much more closely
contested game than the scoreline suggests. More of a chance for a
biased, Edinburgh press to misrepresent events than the disaster that
the scoreline suggests.

First try of the new season went to Hawks when a hard tackle from
Gordon, I think, freed Strang for a chip and chase to the line.
Heriots' just recovered over the line but the resulting lineout allowed
Hawks to use an effective overlap putting Adamson in at the corner. His
conversion put Hawks 7 points up.

At this point Hawks looked much the more composed team with the forwards
gelling well. Given the new look this was encouraging. Nick Cox in
particular was in fine form barging away like a good 'un.

The backs had a more familiar look about them yet strangely were prone
to the occasional brain fart as a wild pass left them scrabbling to
recover. Murray Strang looked assured throughout and once again his
kicking out of hand has improved for another season. Duffy led well from
the centre and definitely stood up to be counted.

Heriots by comparison appeared muted, perhaps stop/start would be a
better description as there were flashes of attack that just weren't
sustained.

Either way the half time score was 10 : 15 to Hawks and Hawks were
definitely showing the more class.

Heriots chose this point to bring on Apolosi Satala, their Fijian
international - who appears to have a roving brief to play in any
position he feels like. There's no question that when he comes on he
makes a difference and the Heriots' supporters' spirits lift.

I have mixed feelings about this, not surprisingly, and MYF is
positively vehement that it's cheating. I suppose she has a point.
It's one thing to have someone like Chalmers winding down his career
playing for Melrose, it's another entirely to have a fairly peak
international playing with amateurs.

Although bringing this thoroughbred on raised the tempo of the game for
Heriots I'd say Hawks were still looking good for the game - at least
for a close finish. Then disaster struck.

Scrum Half Steven Biggart was awarded a red card for stamping on a
Heriots' loosey lying over the ball. I thought it was rucking myself but
the referee seemed certain and wasted no time with the sending off.

With 14 men on the field Hawks conceded 2 goals and a try without reply.
The game ended as a contest with the 62nd minute sending off. A shame
as with 6 tries up to that point the game had clearly been open and honest.

So what to take from the game - as a supporter that is?

Well, Strang looked composed and improved from last season. Duffy led
well, Gordon looked good, the forwards had a peach of a try when a
strong tackle from Strang allowed flanker Fitzpatrick to burst into
space with the ball. As he looked certain to be engulfed by Heriots'
cover an over the heads lob to Warnock allowed the big forward to lope
in. Nick Cox had a brainging blinder, despite a yellow card.

There is a touch more discipline to be found from the forwards, who made
a fair fist of the lineouts - though they were caught out once or twice
at the scrum. It was good to see that the driving maul is still an
effective weapon in the armoury though.

The backs need to lower the error count. When the link between the
centres and the wings is smoothed I'm certain that the strike rate will
rise significantly. There were more than enough good breaks on display
yesterday to show that the ability is there. Now it needs polish.

A disappointing start but with encouraging features on display. Put
this disappointment firmly behind and move on to a tougher game - with
home advantage, next week.

Back to John Inverdale for a demonstration of smug superiority.

regards

The Green Phantom

This article was originally posted on 27-Aug-2006, 13:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 29-Aug-2006, 22:05.