Glasgow Hawks 34 : Aberdeen GSFP 7


On what could have been a typically Scottish summer's afternoon, icy
showers, containing traces of sleet, followed by clear blue sky and a
chilling wind must have made testing conditions for the players.

MYF and I huddled as far back in the stand as we could and still
suffered the driving showers spitting viciously under the canopy in
complete contrast with the dismayed, though courteous, Aberdonians
behind us.

The reason for their dismay was clear. Aberdeen were outplayed in just
about every facet of the game, they rarely made the gainline, were
pushed off the ball in the scrums, struggled at the breakdowns and
played the lineouts like Hawks on an off day.

Their scrummie throughout the first half was bullied off the ball, often
his number 8 too, by a fired up and eventual man of the match Kenny
Sinclair. Their half time replacement showed more pugnacious skill but
was still unable to get much from a beaten pack.

You might think then that the game was gifted to Hawks, but this
certainly wasn't the case. Hawks forwards and backs combined well
handling a wet, slippery ball with what had to be numbed fingers for the
most part with plenty of verve and fluidity. Their outbreak of skill was
just too much for Aberdeen to handle, even when the had the benefit of
the stiff breeze. This was all the more cheering as the loss of Murray
Strang to a hamstring injury (surely an athlete's complaint? - only
joking) meant that the Hawks backline was once again rejigged and also
short of his howitzer kicks.

It was entertaining to see Nick Cox take the ball in the middle of the
pitch at one point and accelerate to almost a walking pace utilising the
famous David Campese 'high step' technique. I am of course being
facetious as he moves considerably faster than walking pace which
obviously means that Einstein's equations concerning mass and speed come
into play. There's no question that Cox is a hard man to stop.

Fitzpatrick once again managed a welcome brace of tries. I can only say
he seems to be getting into a rut, though a very welcome one, of
regularly appearing on the score sheet. MOM Kenny Sinclair added one as
did Gavin Mories and Nick Cox. Given that one or two of the back moves
almost bore fruit as well...

Another bonus, for me at any rate, was a more pragmatic approach as a
penalty award, following the second try, resulted in an easyish, in the
swirling breeze, 3 point kick rather than the optimistic kick for the
lineout that so often gets taken.

Yesterday's win sees Hawks more realistically placed at 6th place in the
table, though there is still one team above us with both a smaller
points difference and one fewer bonus points. It seems to me that there
are more significant differences this year between the top and bottom
teams and Hawks have been a touch unlucky to get their tougher games,
both home and away in some instances, at the earlier part of the season.
I don't suggest for a moment that Hawks are unlucky title contenders
this season but I do think their ultimate position will almost certainly
be closer to the top of the table than they are at present.

So back to the studio to see Inverdale ignoring the other games and
trying to bring every report around to whether Robinson can survive.

regards

The Green Phantom

This article was posted on 12-Nov-2006, 15:56 by Hugh Barrow.