TODAYS HERALD REPORTS
Glasgow Hawks 27 - 7 Edinburgh Accies
HARRY McARTHUR September 24 2007
It's difficult to avoid the mixed metaphor, but Hawks, at last, broke their duck. After three successive defeats, the Glasgow side knew they had to win at home to start moving up the table. This they did, by not only winning, but picking up a fourth-try bonus point. The Accies will be slightly peeved at not getting anything out of the game after a good performance in the first half, but they remain winless, with only a draw point to show in their opening four matches.

Hawks coach David Wilson tempered his enthusiasm at the first win, but did admit it was great to get the breakthrough.

"Perhaps the boys were a wee bit anxious about the importance of this match and it showed early in the first half but, once they edged ahead and confidence grew, there was no way they would lose.

"Early on, we gave away too much ball, made poor passes and gave away penalties. Our decision-making is a bit suspect, too, but that will improve once we get a consistent tempo of the game going. There's work to be done still, but achieving that first win was important."

While not suffering as many injuries as Accies, the Hawks still had to make changes. Most of them were successful with flanker Ally Maclay and Gary Strain at loose-head prop both looking good, with great support coming from Alan Kelly Mark Sitch and John Fitzpatrick.

Edinburgh coach Ian Barnes wasn't openly downhearted. He said: "At the start of the season, if I was going through the fixture list and picking out games we might lose, this is probably one of them."

This article was posted on 24-Sep-2007, 07:38 by Hugh Barrow.