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THE HERALD REPORTS

Glasgow Hawks 31 - 41 Watsonians
Only one man did not enjoy the points bonanza and not unnaturally it was Hawks coach David Wilson. Each side scored four touchdowns so both picked up a bonus point. Hawks looked like collecting a losing bonus also, but an Andy Skeen penalty three minutes from time-up even deprived them of that.

Coach Wilson spoke frustratingly about his boys not conveying the training ground tactical moves to a live match. "We go over various ploys at training but fail to carry them out when it comes to winning games. We are giving away the ball far too easily.

"The game is only two minutes old when we conceded an interception and they are seven points up with most of our players not having touched the ball. We haul ourselves back into the game and deservedly lead 23-20 at the interval, but after the turn round we are careless again, lose the lead and never get it back again."

What must have been even more frustrating for Hawks was that Watsonians were down to 14 men with Jerome Nicholson in the sin bin from just before half-time, and yet the home side shipped 18 points in a disastrous 10 minutes spell.

Hawks are going through a lack of confidence period these days. Even some of the established players are giving away the ball too easily, turnovers are all too frequent. Amazingly Hawks matched the free-flowing Edinburgh side in the try count, but in little else.

Watsonians had a flying start through Mike Kerr's 70m run, but Hawks seemed to have got their act together with three touchdowns before the break. With Watsonians having lost the services of Nicholson, Hawks should have turned the screw, but instead the frailties in handling and tackling cost them dearly.

Hawks are having problems fielding their strongest line-up because of injuries, but Watsonians are equally deprived of first choice players. Coach Cammy Mather touched on that fact.

"It was a bit of a stop-start game," he said, "but when we had the ball we seemed more capable of doing something with it.

"I feel that once we get all our first choice players back we will pick up a lot more points. Perhaps it is too late to do anything in the league, but there is always the cup competition."

12:17am today



By HARRY McARTHUR

This article was originally posted on 14-Oct-2007, 22:26 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 15-Oct-2007, 07:49.