SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS
IN POOL A of the Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup Glasgow Hawks scored a routine 48-7 win at home over Ayr that keeps them on the heels of pool leaders Boroughmuir who were idle yesterday.

Hawks were far more incisive than a defensive Ayr side. After just seven minutes Hawks went ahead when Kenny Sinclair slipped John Fitzpatrick in at the right corner. And on the 20th minute one of the now-fewer penalties being awarded under the trial rules was kicked home by Murray Strang.

From the restart kick Strang produced a cracker of a touch down. He ran for 40 metres, drew the last defender and chipped to the right. As the ball crossed, Fitzpatrick executed a swallow dive to touch the ball down.

advertisementThere were no more points before the pause, though there could have been a brace of tries. Each time Max Evans roared away from deep in his half on an interception, but ran out of gas. So Hawks turned leading 13-0.

That became 20-0 when Rory Kerr went over up the blind side of a five metre scrum. However Ayr's efforts were soon rewarded with a try by Damian Kelly converted by AJ MacFarlane.

But when Steven Duffy touched down in 69 minutes, Ayr heads went down. And Hawks added three further tries through Eric Milligan, Alan Kelly and Kerr. Of the second half conversions, Strang and Kerr bagged one each.

In the north, Hawick and Aberdeen GSFP shared 12 tries in a thriller that saw the Border team win 45-29. Grammar grabbed a first-minute try from Grant Walker but were trailing 28-5 by the turn. Tries from both Colin Phillips and Grant Walker early in the second half kept the northmen in proceedings but the Greens ran out good winners.

Of Hawick's seven tries, three were grabbed by Colin Murray while John Coutts, Andy Wilson, Wullie Blacklock and Barry Sutherland each had one. Sutherland kicked five successive conversions before going off injured.

In Pool B Currie won 16-14 at Dundee HSFP to stay in the mix at the top of the table, thanks to a penalty three minutes into stoppage time from sub Alistair Warnock.

A poor game which saw the teams drawing at 6-6 after 65 minutes only caught alight at the death. Currie took a 13-6 lead with a try from Kevin McShane converted by Evan Haigh. Dundee centre Dave Parkhill, who had all the Taysiders' points, scored an unconverted try, before putting his side into a single point lead with his third penalty a minute into overtime.

But two minutes later, Haigh kicked his own third penalty to see the champions home.

This article was posted on 18-Feb-2007, 01:07 by Hugh Barrow.