The Telegraph reports
Spirit in adversity makes a 'real club of Glasgow Hawks
By Alasdair Reid

When the going gets tough, the tough go skiing. So said the frustrated coach of one Glasgow club, where years of under-achievement by city sides followed a familiar pattern. Their players could produce sparkling and successful rugby in the bright autumn sunshine of the early months of a season, but their dedication to the cause would vanish in the dog days of a Scottish midwinter.

It was a great line, uncomfortably close to the truth for many, but it reached its sell-by date in 1997 when the Glasgow Hawks were formed. The brainchild of former Scotland fly-half Brian Simmers, the Hawks broke the mould of rugby in the city with their uncompromising commitment to excellence. They quickly became a magnet for the best and most ambitious players from Glasgow and beyond, their talents rewarded by three Premiership titles and three National Cups in their first decade of existence.

Of course, all this success attracted a few critics as well. To the old guard of Glasgow rugby, the Hawks were not a 'real' club, they didn't have the bonds of history or tradition that would lend them that authenticity. They existed simply as a stepping-stone to professionalism for a few players, a monument to self-interest. They played the game well enough, but they lacked the sense of brotherhood that is rugby's most cherished value.


But so much for the critics. Try talking to Greg Francis instead. A powerful loose forward, the 26-year-old seems improbably young to be a stalwart of any side, but he has kicked around Anniesland long enough to have earned that title. He's known a few highs with the Hawks. And a few lows as well.

Nothing, though, quite on the scale of the one he experienced last November.

A structural engineer by profession, Francis was sitting in his office when a call came through from one of the club's physios. She was in a bad way, her voice breaking, clearly distraught.

"It was a surreal moment to be honest," he remembers. "I didn't know why she had called, but I could tell she was pretty upset. She had read it on the club website. I think she just assumed I would know about it too. Then she just said it: Craig's dead."

Had he lived another day, Craig Hodgkinson would have celebrated his 28th birthday on Nov 8 last year, but he collapsed and died on Nov 7 while playing for the Royal Navy against a Cornwall development side in Plymouth.

Six months on, the sense of disbelief is still strong, cutting a fissure in Francis's voice. This was the seemingly indestructible Hodgie who had survived a horrific accident a few years earlier when he was struck by a car on a night out with his Glasgow Hawks mates. The Hodgie who had been the Hawks' top scorer in seasons 2001-02 and 2003-04, an elegant fly-half/full-back and an accomplished goal-kicker for the side. The Hodgie who had not just survived the infamous rigours of the Royal Marines training course, but had thrived there, winning the King's Badgeman award for most outstanding recruit at the Commando Training Centre.

The Hodgie, most of all, who was the life and soul of everything that went on at the Hawks before he joined the Marines in 2004. "He loved rugby in every way, on and off the field," Francis says. "He loved the competitiveness of the game, the camaraderie afterwards, the whole thing. He lived for it and he was always pushing others on too.

"The atmosphere around the club was terrible when we heard he had died. We kind of helped each other out, just made sure we were all coping. It was that togetherness you get in a rugby club."

It would be crass to suggest that the Hawks mustered their grief as a motivating force as they went on to conclude their season with their Cup final win over Edinburgh Accies at Murrayfield almost a fortnight ago. After all, the side has changed substantially in the three years since Hodgkinson left, and some of the current squad never knew him. But as Francis agrees, those who did kept him in their thoughts.

The cause of death was cardiac arrest. It is hard to think of a more potent symbol of vitality than a 27-year-old, Marines-trained rugby player. But as many as six young people die of cardiac-related problems in the UK each week. It was just his misfortune to be one of them.

In time, though, it might be a blessing to others that Di and John Hodgkinson were determined that their son should not die in vain. Shocked to hear how commonplace such deaths actually are, they founded the Craig Hodgkinson Trust to raise funds to provide cardiac equipment to sports clubs in Scotland.

Tomorrow evening, when the Hawks play the Royal Navy in a Trust fundraiser that commemorates Craig's life, the Hodgkinsons will hand over two defibrillators, one to each side.

For the privilege of being part of the occasion, old team-mates of Craig's, some now with sides in England, will be travelling back to take part in the game. In adversity, it seems that a 'real club' has been born.

This article was originally posted on 17-May-2007, 06:48 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 17-May-2007, 07:01.