Hawks thwart West's surge
WEST OF SCOT 17-19 GLAS HAWKS
IAIN MORRISON AT BURNBRAE
WHO would be a goal-kicker? West looked dead and buried, trailing their illustrious Premier One opponents by 19-5 inside the final ten minutes, when two tries, from lock Jan Voss and winger Ben Wright, gave the home fly-half Fraser Sinclair a touchline conversion to even the scores and take the match into extra-time. His kick fell away, and with it West's brave fightback as Hawks march on to a place in the BT Cup final at Murrayfield.

The match was a great advert for club rugby and for the Premier Three underdogs, although it wasn't without controversy. Immediately before the Voss score Hawks lost lock forward Niall Caddell to the sin bin, and not before time noted some.

With a man down Hawks immediately lost their second hooker to injury and coach David Wilson was forced to throw on a scrum-half, Richard McKnight, in his stead. This ensured that the scrums were uncontested, just when West might have capitalised on their one-man advantage. The move certainly raised a few eyebrows among the home supporters, but not from West coach John Beattie.

"I don't believe David Wilson would do that on purpose," said Beattie after the match. "Passions always run high at times like these but it wasn't cynical, I don't think we did quite enough to deserve to win. Hawks were the better side, but I am proud of my guys. Not many thought there would be just two points between the sides on the day."

On yesterday afternoon's evidence from Burnbrae, Scottish rugby has a hooligan problem: the game simply doesn't have enough of them. After sitting through countless Premier One matches with all the atmosphere of a morgue, Burnbrae put on quite a show for their high-flying neighbours.

One group of young, and possibly inebriated, supporters kept up a constant barrage of noise for the home team and added greatly to the atmosphere in the process. These "hooligans" were, of course, nothing of the sort, just high-spirited youngsters enjoying a fantastic occasion along with approximately 1,000 others, and more power to them. They even got a response from Hawks' amiable and excellent prop Nick Cox, who put his hand up to acknowledge that, yes, he was the fat bloke in the No.1 shirt. If only every club could find some of the same support the game would thrive again in no time.

On the field Hawks moved the ball at every opportunity and looked dangerous, centre Ricky Munday seemingly able to break the line almost at will. With a first-half wind fly-half Murray Strang hoofed the ball a mile and even into the wind after the break he still seemed to make good ground.

Against that the home team had a highly efficient pack, and looked best when they mauled the ball or picked and drove the visitors back. Hawks were forced to concede penalties to stop the orange and yellow juggernaut, and were fortunate to keep all their players on the pitch as long as they did.

West scored the first try after just four minutes, sticking a kickable penalty into the corner and, while they didn't score immediately, it wasn't long before prop Ellion McLaren dived over to the delight of the home fans.

Hawks were stung into action and promptly replied not once but twice in quick succession in the right-hand corner. The first try went to flanker John Fitzpatrick after Mike Adamson made the extra man and winger Stevie Gordon found the flanker on his inside shoulder. Four minutes later an action replay saw Strang find Gordon with a beautiful one-handed inside pass of which Michael Jordan would have been proud. Adamson kicked both conversions, but the fullback was not quick so clever with a pair of far easier penalties either side of half-time. The first went wide, the second hit the post and, on another day, it might have mattered.

Hawks also grabbed a vital third try in the opening half when Cox broke the line and smart handling sent Caddell over in the corner. It was just as well since last season's champions were unable to add to their score after the break as the home side came up just short.

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 Love 50), C Barrie, C Morrison.

Glasgow Hawks: M Adamson, S Gordon, R Munday, S Duffy (S Kidd 30), R Kerr; M Strang, K Sincalir; N Cox, D Malcolm (S Pollock 50), G Mories (G Macfadyen 48), S Warnock, N Caddell, J MacLay, J Fitzpatrick, A MacLay.

Scorers: West - Tries: McLaren, Voss, Wright. Conv: Sinclair. Hawks: Try: Fitzpatrick, Gordon, Caddell. Conv: Adamson (2).

Referee: J Steele (Dumfries).

This article was posted on 22-Apr-2007, 07:14 by Hugh Barrow.