THE HERALD REPORTS

Melrose 12 - 8 Glasgow Hawks
BY ALAN LORIMER

The second Saturday in January seems on the face of it a tad early to be concluding the Premiership championship but with a twelve-team top tier returning for next season this feeling of an early end of term will be but a temporary phenomenon.

Yet not all are enthusiastic about the reversion to a bigger Premiership, among them Hawks' Kenny Hamilton. Speaking after his side's defeat by Melrose at the Greenyards on Saturday, Hamilton said: "It may not be to everyone's taste, but I still think an eight-team league would produce the excellence that we must strive for at the top. Yes it would mean fewer games but that would benefit the players.

"I genuinely believe that we're asking too much of our players to perform at a high level over what is effectively a nine-month season. With an eight-team league we could structure the competition to allow rest periods for players and also add excitement by having play-offs for relegation," he added.

continued...
Hamilton is also critical that there is no reward for winning the Premiership, suggesting that "a financial prize would be welcome" and also that the SRU would have been better spending money on clubs than in adding to the growing list of employees at Murrayfield.

Not that Hawks would have benefited this season after a campaign of mixed fortune that ended with a narrow defeat by a Melrose side that adapted much the better to the difficult windy and wet conditions in the Borders. Better ball control, stronger forward play, and a more astute understanding of what to do in the gale conditions gave Melrose a 5-3 half time lead from a try by Scott Wight to a penalty goal by Mike Adamson.

Then in the second half Wayne Mitchel crashed over from close range, Wight converted and Melrose with the wind behind them were 12-3 ahead. Hawks hit back with a Jamie Kerr try, but Melrose battened down the hatches thereafter and rode out the storm for a deserved victory.

This article was posted on 15-Jan-2007, 08:31 by Hugh Barrow.