A thoroughly entertaining match between Heriots Rugby and Glasgow
Hawks 2nd XVs on the main pitch at Goldenacre on Saturday was won by
the home side with virtually the last move of the game.

This was a bitter pill to swallow for the 18 Glasgow Hawks players
(and coach Davie Ross) who had performed with a great deal of passion
and commitment for the vast majority of the game, but just ran out of
steam against a slightly more experienced home side.

The Hawks started off at a ferocious pace and within five minutes were
5 - 0 up after a marvellous individual try by James Small. After
securing quick ruck ball, Chris Breckenridge fed Small on an outside
arc, and his strong fend - which was to be a feature of his game all
afternoon - opened up the Heriots\' defence. With fully 50 metres to go
he showed tremendous balance and speed to outstrip the rest of defence
and then sell the fullback a beautiful dummy to glide in five metres
from the posts. Kenny Baillie missed the conversion.

Heriots came back at the Hawks with their usual wide game and started
to put together some decent phases of play, their veteran stand-off
Ian Stent controlling the game with some well placed kicks. That said,
the midfield defence was strong with Small and Mike Whiteford looking
strong in the tackle.

Heriots did manage a score under the Hawks posts after a sustained
period of pressure on the Hawks line, Ian Stent slicing through to put
his centre in, but it was encouraging that they really had been made
to work for this with the Hawks\' scramble defence first class.

Hawks were then dealt a double blow when Murray Wiseman limped off the
field with a damaged foot (replaced by Stuart Pollock), but came back
to dominated the next 15 minutes with Iain Monaghen leading the way.
His refusal to let the game settle by taking quick taps at every
opportunity unsettled the home side and led to a couple of gilt edge
scoring chances for the Hawks. Unfortunately the scoring passes were
put down. During this phase of play, Mark Oatey put in a few powerful
runs making good ground on every occasion. Eventually the pressure
paid off when and after winning a series of centre field rucks on the
Heriots\' 22, Sandy Warnock (playing at openside) sucked in two
defenders to offload the ball to Baillie who ran round under the
posts. He converted his own try to put the visitors five point up once
again.

The first half came to a close with Heriots pounding the Hawks line,
but remarkably the failed to cross the chalk due to resolute Hawks
tackling and on this occasion all eight forwards deserve praise.

The second half started brightly for the away team with Iain Monaghen
very unlucky with a crafty grubber kick to the corner, only to see the
ball fall the wrong side of the corner flag. Although the resulting
scrum brought play back to half way, the visitors stretched their lead
shortly after with a fine try from Warnock. An loose ball at a line
out was pounced on by Iain Monaghen who danced his way past a couple
of defenders before offloading to the supporting Warnock who crashed
over. Baillie, now finding his rhythm, smashed over the conversion
from a tight angle to put the visitors 12 points up.

Unfortunately, the game then slipped away from the visitors with
Heriots beginning to make big inroads around the fringes of the rucks.
Three tries and one conversion was enough to see them home in the end,
however their second try was dubious (to say the least!) as it was
obvious to everybody in the ground (okay, there weren\'t that many, but
it\'s not the point) except the home linesman and ref that the try
scorer hit the corner flag before touching the ball down.

At the end it felt as though we had contrived to do snatch defeat from
the proverbial jaws of victory, however all is not lost as the league
is still in our own hands. Two victories against Stirling and Hawick
and the title is secured.

Notable performances on Saturday were Murray Stewart at lock, who put
in another hard, selfless shift and led the pack with credit, Dougie
Monaghen at hooker whose commitment to the tackle and fitness
throughout were excellent, and Mike Whiteford for some lung-bursting
runs. One highlight to mention is a possible try-saving tackle by Ewen
McDonald at prop who after a series of 4 or 5 defencive rucks, chased
down a centre three quarter, pulling him to the ground at full
stretch.

Sore defeat but all is not lost. Two wins and the title is ours once again.

The Daily Bugle

--
Kenny Baillie

This article was posted on 9-Mar-2005, 08:22 by Hugh Barrow.