It was third time lucky for Glasgow Hawks as they knocked Heriot's out of this season's Scottish Cup.
However, Hawks handsome 34-18 win had little to do with luck as their young team put in a great all-round display.

Heriot's had already beaten Hawks home and away in the Premiership so they came to Glasgow with high hopes of making it a hat-trick, but John Maclay got the Old Anniesland men off to a dream start going over on the right after a great break from Kenny Sinclair.

Murray Strang made no mistake with the conversion and the stand-off got in on the try-scoring action himself soon after when he went over following a great charge from the Hawks forwards. Strang kicked the two-pointer to give Hawks a 14-0 lead with Heriot's wondering what had hit them.

Heriot's introduced former Scotland sevens man Mark Lee and he immediately gave the Edinburgh men more focus and they reduced the gap with a penalty. After a spell of pressure on the left a huge cross kick to the right putt Hawks' Stuart Low in all sorts of trouble. Opposite number Marc Teague made no mistake to gather and touch down. Wilson's conversion made it 14-10.

Hawks - with Pollock, Warnock and Caddell in fine form - came right back at Heriot's. Hawks kicked to the corner twice before winger Steve Gordon was held up over the line. The resulting 5 metre scrum was turned and Hawks had missed a golden opportunity which looked even more costly when a Wilson penalty brought Heriot's within one point.

On the stroke of half-time, more fine work from Warnock and Pollock put eventual man-of-the-match John Maclay in for his second try. Strang converted to give Hawks a 21-13 lead at the interval.

After the break Strang extended Hawks lead with a penalty before a powerful burst from Donald Malcolm punched a hole in the Heriot's defence. The hooker made a great off-load to the supporting Niall Caddell who went in under the posts. Once again, Strang was on target with the conversion.

Heriot's efforts were rewarded with a Steven Manning try but any hopes of it inspiring a comeback were snuffed out by a huge penalty from Strang.

Hawks lost some key personnel last year, so this season was always going to be one of transition, meaning realistic hopes of Premiership silverware were put on hold until next season. However, the development of young players like Caddell, Pollock, Warnock and Malcolm, combined with the experience of Cox, Duffy, Sinclair and Kerr, could see their efforts rewarded this season in the Scottish Cup. You can see some photos from today's game here

Premier Two champions Stirling County were given a top-flight wake-up call by Hawick, who surged to a 31-7 success at Mansfield Park.

The Greens' scorers were McNeil, Wilson, Coutts (2) and McTaggart, the kicking points coming from Sutherland.

Alan Auld sneaked in for County's sole touchdown, converted by Brian Archibald.

Winger Dougie Gray snapped up a hat-trick of tries as Dundee HSFP trounced Biggar 62-10 at Mayfield.

The Taysiders also broke through via Mike Kerr, Mark Jenkinson, JJ van der Esch, Lindsay Graham, Neil Dymock, Alan Hay and Stefan Dreyer.

Barry Jones and Cammy Ferguson shared the goal points, with Andy Cairns pouncing for Biggar 's only response - goaled by Al Browning.

Fallen giants West of Scotland underlined their intention to rise again as they comprehensively disposed of Kelso 27-3 at Poynder Park.

Former Edinburgh and Glasgow pro Guy Perrett broke the deadlock before tries were created for Andy Park and Jan Voss, in addition to a penalty try.

Fraser Sinclair landed two conversions and a penalty, while ex-Scotland centre Kevin Utterson clipped over the Borderers' only penalty.

Newly-relegated Aberdeen GSFP kept their Murrayfield dream alive by sweeping aside the challenge of Cartha QP 41-10 at Rubislaw.

There was no way back for the Glasgow outfit after the home troops raced into a 20-point lead in the opening quarter.

Billy Russell led the charge with two tries, the others coming from Rab Barrie, Colin Phillips and James Miller.

Ben Spearitt was also in great form with the boot, with a 100 per cent return from five conversions and two penalties.

Andy Cozier and Mike Loakman snapped up Cartha's consolation scores.

National Cup Round 6

Aberdeen GSFP 41 - Cartha QP 10
Dundee High FP 62 - Biggar 10
Glasgow Hawks 34 - Heriot's 18
Hawick 31 - Stirling County 7
Kelso 3 - West of Scotland 27

Premiership Division Three

Cambuslang 18 - Kirkcaldy 44
Dunfermline 13 - Haddington 40
Ellon 25 - Musselburgh 18

Scottish Hydro Electric Super Cup Final

Watsonians 35 - Boroughmuir 29

This article was posted on 1-Apr-2007, 13:26 by Hugh Barrow.