SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS

West of Scotland 17 / Glasgow Hawks 19
Lewis Stuart at Burnbrae
Comment
GREAT GAME, great occasion and almost an upset to rewrite the record books, with Third DivisionWestofScotland comingwithinakickof sendingfavouritesGlasgow Hawks tumbling out of the Scottish Cup.

It was a match with its share of controversy as well. With their powerful scrum, West had all the momentum going into the final minutes and Hawks had lock Niall Caddell in the sin bin when a third front-row injury forced referee JohnSteeletoorder uncontested scrums. It did nothing to end the splendidly robust forward confrontation but did give Hawks the leeway to hang on by their fingernails.

John Beattie, the West coach, was incensed at the time but later accepted that all the injuries had been genuiune
In the spiritofmutual admiration, David Wilson, his oppositenumber,admitted that though his side will go through to play Edinburgh Academicals in the Scottish Cup final at Murrayfield, it was West who had claimed all the glory with theirblood-and-guts performance.

All of which is important to the clubs concerned, but for Scottish rugby in general this wasamagnificentand warming event, a reminder that for all the doom and gloom that has been floating around in recent weeks, the sportisstillcapableof delivering an occasion worth savouring.

But the match was also a demonstrationofwhat professional rugby this side of the border has failed to achieve: passion. The crowd - the estimate of 1100 errs on the conservative side - were into the game from the word go. There was so much noise in the close-knit Burnbrae that it was not possible to hear the piper leading the teams out.

On a dry, fast afternoon, the West players did their bit with a wholehearted performance that suggests a quick soar through the Second Division and back to the First may be on the cards.

The packed stand was chanting, refusing to let up even when their team went behind; there was a roar for every tackle, applause for every half break and the place went wild on four minutes when Elliott McLaren, the loosehead prop, drove over the line. Fantastically, the Division Three side were ahead.

The wakening had to come and by the time West started to get back into the game they had gone three tries behind withStevenGordon,the Hawks wing, providing the killertouches,firstgoing outside his man to flip the ball inside to John Fitzpatrick, the flanker, and then finishing himself after clever work in midfield.

Gordon again found space on the outside and with the ball recycled quickly there were not enough defenders across on the other side to stop Niall Caddell, the lock, crashing over for the try that gave his team breathing room.

They needed it, too. As long as they had a scrum, West were in complete control of the second half. As Gordon Bulloch later admitted, if the playershadfoundthe confidence and belief earlier they could have got there.

As it was, Jan Voss, the West lock, was barged over from a rolling maul and deep in injury time Ben Wright, the wing, was sent over. But he was forced to ground the ball near the touchline and the conversion was too much for fly half Fraser Sinclair. And that was that.

West of Scotland: C Duck; A Park, S Malone, E Smith, B Wright; F Sinclair, S Service; E McLaren, G Bulloch, C Hastie, J Voss, G Perrett, S MacKechnie, C Barrie, C Morrison. Subs used: R Kelso, C Love, L Menzies, I Keith.

Glasgow Hawks: M Adamson; R Kerr, R Munday, S Duffy, S Gordon; M Strang, K Sinclair; N Cox, D Malcolm, G Morries, S Warnock, N Caddell, J MacLay, J Fitzpatrick. Subs used: G MacFadyen, S Kidd, S Pollock, R McKnight.

Referee: J Steele (Dumfries).

This article was posted on 21-Apr-2007, 23:02 by Hugh Barrow.