THE SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS
A life less ordinary for the champions


Glasgow Hawks 7 / Watsonians 21



UNLESS Glasgow Hawks can quickly learn how to hang on to the ball, they are in danger of seeing the wheels come off their bandwagon. After three years when they had the psychological and physical edge over most sides, they are feeling the heat and a fourth title looks more and more improbable.

Far from looking at titles, on this sort of disappointing performance they may have to start worrying about the ramifications of featuring at the opposite end of the Premier One table. They did not even force Watsonians to play particularly well to win with something to spare in a game in which the only saving grace was that there were so few people there to see it.

Had this been English football, it would have been the Community Shield, league winners against cup holders, and it should have been a showpiece for the Scottish domestic game. Which only made the quality of rugby all the more depressing, both teams finding it hard to string much continuity together.

“There is still plenty there for us to work on, but at least it was an improvement on last week,” said Cammy Mather, the winning player-coach. “The conditions were tough for both teams but I thought Michael Ker, our fly-half, kicked us into the right positions and controlled the game well for us and that made all the difference.”

Hawks optimists will point out that so far this season they have only replicated their results from last season, losing at Goldenacre and at home to Watsonians, but in the real world there is no real comparison between losing the odd game when you are so far ahead that keeping focussed is a problem and losing badly as the campaign opens.

“I was more disappointing with this week than last,” said David Wilson, the Hawks coach, reflecting that seven days earlier his players had at least shown more commitment and composure. “The reality is that we have to work through this, there is no point in griping. We are two matches down and are still getting to know each other as a new side. The important thing is not to get into this rut where we are chasing games. The problems today that gave Watsonians the initiative emanated from our own errors.”

The stay-aways, put off by Glasgow’s football traffic and the chance to watch Scotland on the television, had a better point than they could have realised. The Hawks play in a surreal, subdued atmosphere at the best of times and with so few in the stands it was even more peaceful than usual, a good place to catch 40 winks without fear of anything disturbing the calm.

The players played their part, producing an insomnia-curing first half in which Ker kept his concentration long enough to kick three mid-range penalties and send his side into the break with a comfortable lead, but the rest of the action was confined to a competition to see who could lose the ball most often and in the most spectacular fashion.

To be fair to the players, it had been raining most of the afternoon before the match started and both the ground and ball were slippery, but this was supposed to be the cream of Scottish domestic rugby and nobody present seemed to have much of an idea how to stop the rot.

Watsonians were the better side. Just. They dominated possession and stole enough vital line outs to produce the pressure for Ker to take advantage with his kicks. Had they had last year’s back division you would have expected that sort of supremacy to have produced some decent try scoring chances but in the event, even when they did cross the line there was an element of luck about it.

By then half time had come and gone, with no hint of a change in the pattern of the game. Watsonians launched a speculative attack down the middle of the field; Steve Lawrie, the hooker, seemed to have been isolated in the middle but threw out the speculative pass that tempted the Hawks defence to go for the interception, leaving a gap for Andrew Skeen, the centre who signed from Berwick over the summer, to nip through.

By now, the Edinburgh club were in complete control up front, and there was nothing lucky about their second try, a simple driven maul from a line out that finished with the forwards flopping over the line in a huge heap, William Rowley, the No 8, being credited with the try. For the first time in the afternoon, Ker missed with the kick but it did not matter.

As Mather noted, a better side would have rubbed in the advantage and gone on to claim the try bonus. Instead they conceded a try to Richard McKnight, converted by Mike Adamson, and spared the champions the embarrassment of failing to register a point.

Glasgow Hawks: K Bailie; S Low, M Adamson, S Duffy, S Murray; M Strang, K Sinclair; N Cox, M Smith, R Macallum, A Dale, A Kelly, G Francis, J Fitzpatrick, S Warnock. Subs used: G Mories, J Maclay, E Smith, R McKnight.

Watsonians: S Stumbles; M Coupar, A Skeen, B Di Rollo, A Rowe; M Ker, M Bringhurst; K Traynor, S Lawrie, K Coertze, T Callander, I Dryburgh, C Mather, G Hills, W Rowley. Subs used: J Nicolson, S Stevenson.

Referee: D Changleng (Gala). Att: 250.

This article was posted on 3-Sep-2006, 07:10 by Hugh Barrow.