Hawks beat the Royal Navy 39-15 in the Craig Hodgkinson Memorial Match at Old Anniesland tonight-match report from Kevin Ferrie in the Herald and thanks to Ally Craig for pics

Glasgow Hawks 39 - 15 Royal Navy

KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer May 19 2007
As 15 good men and true of the Royal Marines took to the Old Anniesland turf last night it was all about the one fallen comrade they bore on their backs. Every shirt carried the same name and serial number: "Hodgy 10".

This match was played in memory of Craig Hodgkinson - formerly of both Hawks and the Royal Navy, who died playing for the latter earlier this season - and also to raise funds for the trust set up by his parents Di and John, which aims to ensure medical equipment is available at clubs to prevent other families enduring similar tragedy.

It was typical of the military that their representatives did such an excellent job of setting the right tone for the occasion, with referee Neil Paterson and the match ball delivered to the ground by Sea King helicopter while dinner guests had earlier been welcomed in by the Royal Marine drum corps.

A dinner and auction, run by the inimitable Andy Cameron, were also staged and organisers reckoned at least £25,000 was raised, which will pay for 25 defibrillators to go to sports clubs around the country.

Auction items included rounds of golf for four at Gleneagles and St Andrews Bay as well as a Celtic football strip and hospitality at a Rangers match. Cynics who believe most Scottish club rugby people are hostile towards the game's administrators may be shocked to discover that the top bid by far was £1200 for four people to be guests of Allan Munro, the SRU chairman, at the Scotland v South Africa match in August.

It was a night which showed the sport of rugby in its best light and in the course of the dinner, Kenny Hamilton, the Hawks club president, was presented with the jersey Hodgkinson would have worn in this season's Army/Navy match by Commodore Jim Patrick, chairman of the Royal Navy Rugby Union.

While Hodgkinson was part of the Hawks team that won a Scottish Cup and Premiership double in 2003/04, the Twickenham game would have been the biggest of his life with some 50,000 in attendance.

"As we have done for several years the Navy came second, but the lead changed hands five times and our coach, who is not prone to sentiment, said afterwards that if Hodgy had been playing we would have won," Commodore Patrick told the gathering.

Though taken very seriously by both sides, last night's match was almost incidental to the overall event and was rather more one-sided. Hawks moved into an early lead with tries from Stuart Smith and Ally Maclay. A "Hodgy" - Josh Drauniniu to be precise - scored in between times and he was followed over by Wayne John, aka "Cowboy" on the stroke of half-time. But in between times Maclay had registered his second making it 15-10 at the break.

Mark Sitch, a club favourite who retired after Hawks completed their third successive league title win a year ago, marked his comeback for the night by being credited with the first score of the second half as the pack drove over.

Thereafter Hawks gradually took control, Chris Breckenridge, Eric Milligan and Steve Gordon adding further tries before Owen Salmon crossed late on for the Navy.

This article was originally posted on 18-May-2007, 23:06 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 19-May-2007, 07:29.