THE HERALD REPORTS

Tearful final victory for Hawick hero
KEVIN FERRIE at Mansfield Park September 18 2006
Hawick 10 - 7 Glasgow Hawks

Words were not required to describe Brian McDonnell's feelings as he sat on the bench gazing out on to the pitch long after it had cleared on Saturday evening. Just as well, because he could hardly find any.
Six years after he originally thought he had done so - having fallen out with then coach Ian Barnes in Millennium year - the prop knew this time that he had just played his last game for Hawick.
As a barely deserved vic-tory was snatched from the reigning champions it was, aptly, one that had revived memories of the never-say-die spirit which, for much of his life, made this the most feared venue in Scottish rugby.
Out of affection for the club and loyalty to Jim Hay - his former front-row comrade in arms, now Hawick's head coach - McDonnell had, a week earlier, celebrated his 40th birthday by making his latest and last comeback. "I just had to help them," he managed, before his eyes filled with tears and his voice faded away.
A few minutes later, having composed himself, he explained how none other than Hay could have got him to return for three matches last season, then again this month. The respect was clearly mutual as Hay eulogised about the veteran's contribution, saying: "He has been outstanding for us in the last two games."
Hay, who himself only returned to a key role a year ago after witnessing Hawks 80- point mauling of the Greens at the end of the 2004/05 campaign, outlined his motivation more graphically.
"I look at other Borders clubs like Kelso, Jed-Forest and Gala who have all gone down and I think if Hawick go down we will never come back," was his apocalyptic message. "I wanted to be able to say to myself that at least I will go to my grave knowing I tried."
The scale of the problem facing their club is reflected in McDonnell's circumstances. Among the latest victims of the region's dwindling jobs market recent redundancy has forced him to look elsewhere.
"I'm going to work as a box driver for a racehorse trainer in Middleham in Yorkshire," he said. "It's an exciting time for me, but this has been my life for 20 years."
Hawick's future depends not only on hoping enough of the youngsters who have kept their youth teams so successful in recent years do find reason to stay, but on Hay and the remaining senior players instilling something of that spirit into them.
While McDonnell was so important to their ability to compete up front, the only real spark behind came from Rory Hutton - a teenage playmaker not yet born when the man in the No.3 jersey made his debut - provided their only real spark behind.
It is probably inevitable that Premier One teams will increasingly depend upon those aspiring to turn full-time and those who have com- pleted professional careers, with relatively few in between. Hawick's edge may be in having a better chance than city teams in particular, of persuading those not quite good enough to earn a living from rugby that there remain causes worth fighting for.
This may, after all, yet prove a season in which Hawick could be very grateful that only one team is being relegated from Premier One, since there was little other than the result from which to draw confidence after, in what were excellent overhead conditions, a dismal game.
Colin Murray's penalty was the first-half's lone score and it summed it all up that a midfield mess which prompted a colleague to murmur "This is getting dafter all the time," proved the start of the move which produced the opening try. A Hawks knock-on having gone undetected, Rikki Kiore's attempt to flick the loose ball towards Hutton went to ground and John Fitzpatrick hacked ahead then, once in the 22, angled his second kick cleverly to gain the vital advantage in the race with the young stand off.
For long enough that looked sufficient until yet another referee opted to indulge in the irksome practice of seeking crisis in drama by waiting until the dying moments to reach for his yellow card, not once but twice. There is something quite wrong about games in which players have given their all for upwards of 80 minutes, being decided this way, Greg Thomson seizing the goal-line pass from Ross Armstrong as the defence finally buckled eight minutes into injury time.
To the Hawks management's eternal credit, they played down their disappointment with the sin-binnings of Greg Francis and try-scorer Fitzpatrick, preferring to focus on such concerns as lineout frailty and handling errors.
Doubtless that is helped by the knowledge that while Hawick have the likes of the Landells brothers to return and Kiwi centre Alexis Time will join them this week, the champions, for all that they are rebuilding, still have superior personnel and much less to fear longer term.

This article was posted on 18-Sep-2006, 07:08 by Hugh Barrow.