THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
West of Scotland 29 - 13 Glasgow Hawks: New boys West get off to a flier over Hawks


By DAVID FERGUSON AT BURNBRAE
GORDON Bulloch's influence may soon rise steeply within Scottish Rugby Board environs, but after his role in Saturday's opening day triumph, players and supporters at West of Scotland will hope that his focus remains very much on the pitch.
For the first hour at Burnbrae this was close to a one-sided affair, the new team from Division Two running the new-look Hawks ragged. It was by no means a Bulloch one-man show, with such young talents as Peter Horne, the former Bell Baxter HS cup wiADVERTISEMENTnner, and academy player Jamie Hunter leading the West attacks with real vigour, and Roddy Grant, Robert Harley and Graham Hisken outshining the Hawks' back row. But a crucial difference was the presence in the home side of genuine experience.

Bulloch – the West skipper and Murrayfield's new Board non-executive member – and Guy Perrett, the Scotland A lock, were the glue that bound West into the more potent unit on Saturday, while Rory Kerr, the former Scotland wing, brought a similar decision-making confidence to the back division from centre.

"We've been training hard and got a couple of academy boys in and young pro Richie Gray, which is nice to accompany the guys we've got," said Bulloch afterwards, "but what we've tried to do is just make everyone feel welcome at the club.

"No pressure – we're here to try things and have a bit of fun and that's the way we're going to play it. It's going to be tough, and we're going to be aggressive, but we're just going to have some fun."

Aggression was another crucial difference between these teams. West clearly came into their first Division One campaign for nine years with strong teamwork and belief formed in successive Division Three and Two triumphs. Hawks' disjointed approach, however, despite the presence in their back division of the exciting Craig Gossman, son of ex-West and Scotland cap Jimmy, and the experienced Zimbabwe cap Ian Noble, only made their youthful facade appear more naïve than is probably accurate.

The perplexing issue as half-time approached was how West were just 8-3 in front, Hawks having struggled to glimpse the home half after Noble's first-minute penalty and the loss of Gavin Mories to the sin-bin for ten minutes.

The early pace was frenetic, ensuring errors on both sides, but though the new experimental law variations (ELVs) were hardly writ large on proceedings, it was from a quickly taken lineout that they encourage that Horne finished off West's first try after five minutes.

He sliced a penalty and then converted one, but, largely due to fine Hawks defence, the home support had to wait until the final act of the half to enjoy a second try. Alex Fisken, the scrum-half, ensured a memorable 1st XV debut by exploding onto a pass from the grounded Michael Sim to score, Horne converting.

Hawks made three changes at the break, but it was home sub Iain Keith who made the most telling early contribution with a blistering midfield surge from halfway. When he was finally caught by Noble, he found Hunter on his left shoulder to take the scoring pass and go in under the posts.

The space around scrums presented by the ELVs gave West the impetus for their fourth try. They split their backs on halfway and attacked right with a zeal that stunned Hawks, Grant taking the final pass from Horne.

Hawks were beginning to gel before that and they dominated the final quarter. And while the West defence was outstanding at times, Andy Jackson and Paddy Bower did finally break through in the last eight minutes. The visitors' coach Peter Wright savoured title glories a few years back, but he knows he faces a different challenge this time.

"Those successes have built a lot of expectation around Anniesland and everybody expects Hawks to be up at the top every week," he said, "but we knew we were in a rebuilding phase.

"West were a far better team; they looked like they had been together for a long time.

"We had 10/12 players who hadn't played together, so we were disjointed, but the two tries either side of half-time hurt us. After defending really well, they were softish tries and heads went down.

"But they're young boys though and I reminded them they're on a learning curve, and to learn they must take heart from the last 25 minutes."

He added: "I'm only concerned with Hawks and how we improve, but for Scottish rugby as a whole it's great to see West and Selkirk beating recent champions and proving they can step up and be competitive."

Scorers: West: Tries – Horne, Fisken, Hunter, Grant. Pen – Horne. Cons –Horne 3. Hawks: Tries – Jackson, Bower. Pen – Noble.

West of Scotland: P Horne; A Park, R Kerr, M Sim, L Menzies; J Hunter, A Fisken; C Hastie, G Bulloch (capt), D McKenna, R Gray, G Perrett, R Harley, G Fisken, R Grant. Subs: I Keith for Kerr 40mins, J Vos for Perrett 45, Perrett for Harley 47, Kerr for Hunter 61, R Wilson for Bulloch 64, C McKenzie for Horne 71, E McLaren for Hastie 79.

Glasgow Hawks: C Gossman; S Gordon, I Noble, S Duffy, S Murray; M Rainey, P Bower; G Strain, N Nyemba, G Mories, A Kelly, N Campbell, A Kirkland, G Harkness, A Jackson. Subs: P Jericevich for Bower 27mins, J McLay for Nyemba, G MacFadyen for Strain, N Cadell for Kirkland, all 40, R Hair for Duffy 55, Bower for Gordon 61,

Referee: T Coutts (SRU). Attendance: 840.

This article was posted on 1-Sep-2008, 22:29 by Hugh Barrow.