Watsonians 32 - 17 Glasgow HawksCommentSIMON MORGAN

Watsonians put on a show for their home supporters at Myreside on Saturday, scoring some superb tries and outmuscling an injury-hit Glasgow Hawks up front.

It was the home side's third league win on the bounce, after victories over champions-elect Boroughmuir and Melrose, and leaves them with a chance of finishing second with four matches to play.

However, when they play the way they did in patches on Saturday they may wonder why they are not competing for the title.

advertisementThe visitors, missing the likes of the talismanic Mark Sitch and last season's top try scorer, John Fitzpatrick, from their back-row, were always up against it in the pack. Certainly, head coach David Wilson was disappointed by what he saw as soft scores.

"We gave away a soft try and soft penalties in the first half, but we did well to go in at half-time just 11-10 down. Unfortunately, in the second half there was a period of about 10 minutes where we lost too much ball in contact and gave away two tries which really killed us," he said.

Watsonians coach Cammy Mather gave home debuts to full-back Scott Kennedy and centre Jamie Wood and they showed up well alongside the returning back-row Guy Hills, who was making his first top team start of the season.

Andrew Skeen's two penalties gave 'Sonians a 6-0 lead early on before Ruaridh Jackson cut the deficit to 6-3 on the 15-minute mark with a penalty of his own.

Watsonians began to play some good running rugby but too often the last pass went astray, so it was a relief for the home support when the day's first try did come in the 36th minute, Carl McWilliam and Skeen jinking their way into the Hawks' half before setting up winger Ali Rowe, who beat Jackson for pace on the outside to dot down.

'Sonians let Hawks back into the game in injury time, Stewart Smith taking advantage of some lacklustre tackling to score the converted try and cut the deficit to one point.

Hawk's hopes were short-lived, however. Firstly, Willie Lipp barged over with the help of his forward colleagues in the 45th minute and then, 60 seconds, later Hennessey romped home.

With 18 minutes remaining Skeen danced over to secure the bonus point, before Jackson scored and converted a try in the final minute.

This article was posted on 7-Jan-2008, 08:06 by Hugh Barrow.