SUNDAY HERALD REPORTS

Wedding day blues
Edinburgh Acas 13 / Glasgow Hawks 24
Alasdair Reid at Murrayfield
Comment
NEWLYWED EDINBURGH Accies prop Alistair Marsh made a helicopter dash to Murrayfield from his wedding in Hawick, but this was surely not the sort of reception he had in mind.

With all the ruthlessness and efficiency the Accies failed to muster, Glasgow Hawks took control of the National Cup final and were comfortably in control by the end. As Marsh headed back down the A7 to his bride, the trophy was on its way to Anniesland for the third time in a decade.

The announcer who hailed the match as "pulsating" at the finish may have been watching a different game from the rest of us, but even those in the Accies ranks were obliged to concede that the better side had won, and by a margin that did not begin to do justice to their overall superiority.

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While the capital outfit struggled to muster the kind of game that had swept them into the final in the first place, the Hawks dished up an exhibition of cool-headed rugby, mustering all their experience to put the upstarts from the second division firmly in their place.

Mike Adamson, the Hawks' fly-half, took the Man of the Match award for the assured goal-kicking that measured the difference between the sides at the end of a game that threw up a try count of two apiece. It would be wrong, though, to single out any of the Hawks for a particularly outstanding performance, for this was a match in which they all buckled down, pulled together and squeezed the life out of their opponents.

The Accies will be desperately disappointed for their failure to fire on the day that mattered most.

Having swept three top division sides out of the competition on their way to the final, there was a distinct impression of nervousness in their ranks on the bag day itself.

That failing was most obvious in the edgy performances of full-back Ross Browne and fly-half Gavin Douglas, but again it was a malaise that was more general than particular in nature.

Critically, the Accies also lost the services of Ed Stuart, one half of their mighty second row partnership, at a stage of the game when they were always likely to be punished.

With 36 minutes on the clock, Stuart was sin-binned for ball-killing, and the Accies took advantage with steely purpose. Stuart had scarcely taken his seat on the touchline before John Fitzpatrick, the Hawks' openside, grabbed a rash Browne pass and raced away for a score, and it would be fair to say that the Accies ship was not steadied until the lock returned to the field.

Afterwards, the Hawks captain, Steven Duffy, confirmed that Stuart's departure had been a huge psychological, as well as numerical, boost to his side.

As they sat in the dressing room at half-time, the Hawks players acknowledged the importance of capitalising on their man advantage, and they broke from the blocks at the start of the second period and did just that.

Four minutes into the second half, waves of Hawks attacks finally breached the dam of the Accies defence, and No 8 Ally Maclay surged over near the posts for their second try.

The Accies had signalled an intention to muscle their way to victory from the start, and the power of Stuart was quickly evident. Douglas had kicked them into the right corner, and from a lineout just a few yards short of the line they set up an unstoppable series of drives.

Joe Edwards, the veteran hooker, went close, Stuart following up in support to plough over for the 20th-minute score.

At that stage it seemed that the Accies' narrower gameplan was destined to work a treat. They had the nudge in the tight five and their back row stifled the possibility of any supply of quick ball from the Hawks' backs. When the Hawks did manage to work the ball away from the breakdown with any haste, their three-quarters looked threatening, but those occasions were not exactly coming thick and fast.

At the time, it also seemed hugely significant that the Hawks' first points, a penalty from Adamson in the 29th minute, were almost immediately annulled by an opportunist dropped goal from Douglas. Clearly, the Accies realised the significance of keeping an edge on the scoreboard against higher-ranked opposition, so Stuart's departure put a massive dent in their gameplan.

Losing their lead also appeared to rob the Accies of the composure they had demonstrated in the early stages of the game.

Douglas began to take every option but the right one, and his pack found themselves back-pedalling to redeem the errors. Nor were they blameless themselves, for at one lineout, late in the game, their delivery of the ball was so execrable that the Hawks leapt on the error and drove them 60 metres back upfield.

The Accies did manage to get one more try on the board, flanker and captain Dan Teague driving over from a lineout in the 48th minute, but even at that stage there was a sense that it was not going to be their day. Increasingly, they seemed to be launching their attacks from long-range, but the gathering desperation found expression in a series of silly errors too.

Adamson punished the Accies' more reckless habits with a brace of penalties in the final quarter to secure the trophy. And Marsh donned his kilt and set off back to Hawick for his happy ever after.

Edinburgh Accies: R Browne; J-M Howison, L McCann, P Loudon, D Rattray; G Douglas, M Campbell; P Burns, J Edwards, A Marsh, E Stuart, M Pike, D Teague (captain), J Parker, G Campbell.

Subs used: S Walker, D MacLeod, E Stott, S Paterson, C Kinloch, R Bonner, L Niven.

Glasgow Hawks: M Strang; S Gordon, R Munday, S Duffy (captain), R Kerr; M Adamson, K Sinclair; N Cox, D Malcolm, G Mories, A Dale, S Warnock, A Caddell, J Fitzpatrick, A Maclay.

Subs used: G Macfadyen, J Maclay, G Francis, S Low, R McKnight, S Smith, S Kidd.

Referee: P Allan (Dumfries)

This article was posted on 6-May-2007, 07:49 by Hugh Barrow.