What a struggle this was! A combination of a very solid and determined Cumnock side, a poor first half display by Hawks and an inconsistent refereeing display, all meant that until the last 5 mins this game teetered on the brink. The Hawks cause was not helped by the fact that we were yet again short of 9 players through injury. The fact that 5 of those 9 were from the pack meant that a number of players had to play out of position.



For the first time this season Hawks found themselves behind after Cumnock kicked a penalty after 8 mins. This was no less than the home side deserved. Then Andy Homer produced just what was needed and showed marvellous strength, determination and good soccer skills, to take the ball from just about half way and go through to score. Andy played magnificently throughout and if we did award man of the match prizes he would have received my vote. Chris Rhodes slotted the conversion. That was that so far as Hawks were concerned in the first half. A combination of handling errors, below standard kicking, poor decision making and a determined Cumnock display meant that for the first time this season we went in at half time 9-7 down, Cumnock having kicked 2 further penalties.

The boys seemed to settle a bit better in the 2nd half and after 8 mins Robbie Nicholson went bravely over for a try. 2 mins later a piece of inspirational brilliance saw Patrick Bell brea from half way handing off and sidestepping opponents and ultimately outpacing them to score. Chris converted. As the Cumnock coaches commented, the boys were getting confident now and beginning to cut loose. 5 mins later Jonny Byrne-Leitch broke from half way passed the ball out for Rory Taylor to score in the corner. Cumnock at no point gave up and scored a fine try after 20 mins. With the score at 24-14 in Hawks favour things were tense and although Hawks piled on the pressure the only other score came from a lovely penalty by Chris with 5 mins to go.



A good result in all the circumstances and one from which the boys will have learnt a lot. We have no game next weekend and its just as well because the injury crisis combined with” Duke of Edinburgh” duties would have meant that we might not have been in a position to field a team.



The final game of the Glasgow campaign is at home to Greenock on 26th November. The championship and national leagues are within touching distance.

This article was posted on 12-Nov-2006, 21:00 by Hugh Barrow.