GHK 8-8 Cumbernauld

GHK’s impressive home record at Balgray was severely tested on Saturday after Cumbernauld came within a whisker of winning against a lacklustre GHK team who did not deserve any points from the fixture, never mind the 2they scraped for the draw.

The match started after a minutes silence for former club President Bobby Dunlop who had passed away during the week. GHK’s squad again had some fresh faces, GHK have never put out the same team on consecutive weekends in 3years, with Dave Whyte returning in the centre and Ali Smeaton coming in at fullback. Jamie MacKinnon was retuning from injury in the second row and Gillon Rand made his first ever start at number 7 with his entire rugby career to date being played in the backs.

GHK were the more impressive in the opening 20mins with some good forward play and nice handling from the backs but the final pass always seemed to be dropped. Cumbernauld started coming into the game with their big pack mauling at will from lineouts but GHK’s defence was holding firm and particularly when Cumby did move it to the backs, GHK had them covered.

The dead lock was broken after some good recycling by the forwards on the left touchline allowed the ball to be moved to Whyte in midfield who powered his way past his opposite man and offloaded to Smeaton who stepped past the last two defenders for a lovely score.

This fired up the visitors who returned to the GHK 22 and managed to win the penalty on the right touchline and the Cumby flyhalf slotted a superb kick for 3points. Cumby were on the attack from now on and only some ill discipline let GHK off the hook but with penalties and free kicks on their own line, GHK decided to run them but ended up dropping the ball or getting tackled and just putting all the pressure of a heavy pack back onto them.

Jaimie Millan did knock over a penalty just before the interval and the half finished 8-3 but with Cumbernauld on the offensive and the game was in the balance. GHK brought on some experience from the bench with Ali Forbes and Peter Nokes returning from injury and both made an impact when they had the ball. GHK were awarded a penalty 5m out and just left of the posts but again decided to run the ball instead of taking the points, if they had scored then the decision would have been a good one they did not; putting the visitors 2scores behind would surely have been the sensible decision.

Cumbernauld pack were dominating the scrum and catching and driving every lineout and were gaining more yardage from every attempt. The referee was letting GHK off the hook, awarding penalties against Cumby just as it looked they were about to score but GHK decided again to give them the ball back from running the ball from their line and making mistakes, lessons obviously have not been learned from previous games.

Cumbernauld got what they deserved after dominating the game when another catch and drive could not be stopped and their big pack rumbled over the line just to the left of the posts with the last play of the game. The impressive penalty kick from their flyhalf earlier in the game surely signalled a loss for GHK but surprisingly he pushed it wide of the sticks and the game was tied. Cumbernauld celebrated like they had won GHK felt like they had lost and with Cumbernauld missing several key players the result was all the more impressive for them.

GHK have a real point to prove next week against new team Uddingston who won last weekend. If GHK are serious about winning this league, they need to learn how to close games out and play sensible rugby. Players are summoned to training this week to work on the frailties of Saturday s game.

The Uddingston game is the first game to be played at Old Anniesland this season, kick off is 3pm and with both hawks teams away from home, support is welcomed.

GHK Team: Smeaton, Shannon, Whyte, Jones, McTavish, Millan, McFarlane, Lohar, Stewart, Welsh, MacKinnon, McLemon, Clarke, Rand, Cram, Forbes, Nokes, Criggie

This article was posted on 26-Sep-2006, 09:50 by Hugh Barrow.