GHK 38 – 16 CUMNOCK
On Saturday Cumnock came across a form team who played some exciting open expansive rugby. The Glasgow pitch is extremely wide allowing the home time the space to play their open running style of rugby which was a joy to watch and extremely hard to defend against.
With GHK being a feeder club to Glasgow Hawks the influence of the Glasgow giants was clear to see. The home side was packed with hawks of the future and some exciting runners which cut holes in the visitors defence.
It was Cumnock who opened the scoring, playing from the start as they had last week, keeping it tight to the forwards. When a Malcolm drive was stopped the home side strayed offside and Dunsmuir stepped up to convert the penalty. As the home side settled they began to spread the ball wide with pace and great angles of running and score two excellent tries around the half hour mark.
Cumnock responded well by limiting the space allowed to the home side and when some good pick and drive rugby resulted in a ruck 15 metres out, Armstrong fed McWhirter who coolly slotted a drop goal to reduce the home sides lead.
Just prior to the break the home scrum half broke free and although he was stopped with a wonderful tackle by Elliott the home pack recycled the ball and it was again spread wide for the winger to score in the corner for a half time lead of 24 – 6.
The second half began as the first had ended with some fast flowing rugby leading to another try in the corner for the home winger. The Cumnock heads began to drop and GHK began to ay flowing rugby with a smile on their faces with only some last ditch tackling by the Cumnock back three keeping the score respectable. GHK did extend their lead mid way through the half when a scissors move in the centre caught the home defence flat footed and the centre sailed through for an easy score between the posts.
Cumnock rallied late in the game when good forwards play lead to Malcolm crossing the line to narrow the gap and in the final five minutes Laurie broke from the base of a scrum feeding scrum half Armstrong who committed the full back and it was Laurie who was on hand to take the off load to score a well worked try.
Coach Laurie was disappointed with his team’s performance, ‘we allowed them to play the type of game we knew they would play. We played well in patches but did not stick to the game plan when the pressure came on’
Cumnock have a free week next week but return to Broomfield in 2 weeks time.

This article was posted on 22-Oct-2007, 19:00 by Hugh Barrow.