Date: 01/12/07
Venue: Edinburgh Academy's New Field
Overhead conditions: typically Edinburgh - cold and (very) dull.

Hawks (17) 24
Tries: Dunk, McDonald, Love Machine
Cons: Millan (3)
Pens: Millan

Accies (17) 24
Tries: (4)
Cons: (2)

The Daily Bugle

With a few changes from last weekend's disappointing loss at home to Aberdeen Grammar School FP RFC, Ally Maclay led Hawks onto the field in a positive frame of mind. Hawks were extremely grateful for two late additons from Glasgow Accies, Graeme Simpson and Matt Franklin. Both players went onto have fine debuts.

Hawks started the game brightly and it was encouraging to see the tight five settle into the game, winning lineout ball on both their own and the opposition's throw. Some scrappy play from both sides then followed before Hawks opened the scoring on 10 minutes with a fine try.

Defending well inside the Accies half, Hawks turned over the ball and moved it quickly through several pairs of hands. The Love Machine come off his wing and made a fine intrusion into the line before feeding Dunky on the 22. Although he had plenty of running left to do, Dunky skinned his opposite number and raced into the corner. With the wind at his back, Jaimie Millan kicked the conversion from the 5-metre line.

For the next ten minutes, Hawks began to dominate the set piece, regularly pushing the Accies pack off the ball. On the 20 minute mark one such tight head allowed Hawks to steal possession from the scrum half and feed Gavin McDonald who raced under the posts, Millan converting.

Thereafter, Hawks continued to take the game to Accies and it was on 25 minutes that the turning point came. With the home defence at sixes and sevens, Hawks created numerous overlaps but unfortunately they failed to score the crucial try. In the end, a three-man overlap was squandered and Accies held out.

This seemed to energise the famous blue and white hoops as, against the run of play, they moved up the field and capitalised on weak Hawks tackling to score a converted try under the sticks on 29 minutes. Three minutes later they crossed the line again to narrow the gap to two points.

With five minutes to go before the break, Hawks extended their lead win a finely struck penalty from Jaimie Millan but then switched off once more to let Accies score their third try to make it a tied ball game at half time.

The second half was ALL Hawks. Some bad decision making and a lack of composure costs them badly at times and this was best illustrated when after 53 minutes the Accies winger intercepted a pass on his own line to run the length of the field and score close enough to the posts to allow them to take a seven point lead.

Ten minutes later, Hawks got reward for their efforts when some excellent interplay from forwards and backs put the Love Machine in the corner for a well deserved try. Again Jaimie Millan converted from out wide and once again the scores well level.

For the last 15 minutes Hawks tried in vain to get the winning score but it would be fair to say that all in red and black were completely bemused whe the referee disallowed what seemed a perfectly ligitamate try. A scrum under the posts, the evergreen Cammy Little picked up from Fat Heid's feet and showed a devastating burst of acceleration and a deft side-step to glide over the line. Apparently the ball squirted out the side of the scrum! Ridiculous.

For the remainder of the game both sides tried in vain to get the winnng score but ultimately had to settle for a draw.

With inspirational captain Stephen Kidd missing from the line-up through injury, the Hawks players deserve a lot of credit for their efforts and the reporter was particularly impressed by powerful performances from forwards Chucks Aghanya, the two locks and Beaver while Dunky had an excellent all-round game at 15.

Hawks 2s move onto Dundee next week for what will once again be a difficult game, but with everyone making the necessary sacrifices to get to training and Ally C back in charge, Hawks 2s can pick up a confidence boosting victory.

Finally, the reporter received a last minute request to put in print that on Saturday, 15 December there will be some sort of public hanging, aka court session, in the clubhouse after the Stirling County game. A Hawks insider said that the outlaw, Chris Breckenridge, is due for particualr humiliation after losing the team Dick of the Day uniform. Apparently all are expected to attend.

15-Stuart Dunk; 14-Mark Hannah; 13-Gavin McDonald; 12-Chris Breckenridge; 11-Rory Love Machine; 10-Jaimie Millan; 9-Cameron E. Little, Esq. 1-Chucks Aghanya; 2-Robbie Alexander; 3-Jamie Coskry; 4-John Morrissey, 5-Graeme Simpson, 6-Riley; 7-Andrew Jackson, 8-Alastair Maclay (c) Replacements: Matt Franklin for Coskry (55); James Small for Breckenridge (40); Ross Neil for Hannah (40)



Attendance: Jake, Hamish and Riley's wee burd.

This article was posted on 2-Dec-2007, 08:38 by Hugh Barrow.