Glasgow Hawks RFC vs Stirling County RFC

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Old Anniesland


Welcome

Stirling County are one of Scotland’s leading rugby clubs. Their legendary mini and midi rugby sections have produced a number of Scotland internationalists including Kenny Logan, Kevin McKenzie and more recently Ally Hogg. Last season was another outstanding season for their junior section with both the Stirling County U’18s and U’15s winning the John Lewis Youth League Cup and National Midi U'15 final respectively. Three of the Youth League Cup winning team are listed in Stirling’s 1st XV today – Danny Gilmour (12), Grant Gilchrist (5) and Jason Hill (6).

I believe their investment in youth development is a model for all clubs in Scotland to follow and a key element in helping Scotland make progress at professional and international level.

At senior 1st XV level, Stirling County has, like Hawks, had a difficult start to the season. Obviously, I hope that they do not get back to winning ways this afternoon, but we know that we are in for a very tough game today as they played extremely well last week against league leaders Ayr, only to lose narrowly in the end.

A warm welcome to Stirling County players, President John Clarke, Vice-President Ray Mountford and all the supporters who have made their way to Old Anniesland from Bridgehaugh.

Youth Development and Hawks Junior Rugby Programme

On Monday night, Hawks were delighted to welcome Christ’s College from Canterbury in New Zealand to Old Anniesland for our first U’20s XV fixture of the season. It was especially good to see Rob Ackerman once again. Rob is Director of Rugby at Christ’s and the school tour is very much his inspiration. After watching the young New Zealanders perform a Haka on the field before the game, Hawks eventually ran out winners 14-10.

Tomorrow, our U’20s continue their programme with a game against the Scottish Exiles U’20s at New Anniesland, K.O. 1:00 PM. With further games against Constanta Rugby Club (Romania), Rugby Viadana (Italy) and Stirling County we are keen to give our young players as much opportunity as possible to play with, and against, players their own age.

Once again I would like to draw your attention to Grant Talbot’s column on page 18. Grant continues to work closely with The High School of Glasgow, The Glasgow Academy, Kelvinside Academy and St. Clare’s, St. Paul’s, St. Pat’s, St. Brendan’s and Corpus Christie Primary schools on a weekly basis.

Our U’13s, U’14s and U’15s continue to perform well and this weekend the U’13s and U’14s are at home to West of Scotland while the U’15s travel to Marr RFC.

Moreover, it’s great to see another mini rugby clinic taking place before the game. Today the pupils from Hyndland Primary School are benefitting from coaching from Grant Talbot and some of the (injured) senior Hawks players.

The Glasgow Hawks Supporters Club

At our last home game against Edinburgh Accies, we launched our new Supporters Club. Already we have 20 mew members so I would like to encourage you all to have a look at the information pack accompanying today’s match day programme, or check out www.glasgowhawks.com/cms/supporters. If you would like to join, please speak to either Lawrie Sinclair, Dave Millard, Lindsay Crawford, Dave Campbell or me.

Our Supporters Club has already got a date in the diary for its first social event. On Saturday, January 31, a Sportsman’s Dinner will be held at Old Anniesland and information on tickets and speakers will be released in the next few weeks. Please put this date in your diary as well as Saturday, May 16 which is the date of our annual Player of the Year Dinner Dance.

Future of Scottish club rugby

As this article goes to print, there is a proposal on the table from the SRU to restructure the league rugby in Scotland. The proposal is to reduce the Premiership from three leagues to one, beneath that reduce the National leagues from three leagues to one and then beneath that have regional leagues split along the lines of West, Caledonia and East regions. Is this a good thing for Scottish rugby?

Certain elements of the proposal are sound – having one Premier league is a good start, but I was bitterly disappointed that the three main issues for league restructuring were 1) Maximise the number of games available to clubs to ensure income generation; 2) Reduction of travelling costs which is an increasing burden on clubs; and 3) Retention of cup competitions so that clubs can still have their “big day” at Murrayfield. No mention of improving the standard of club rugby or player welfare.

On Wednesday night, the P1 Forum met at Murrayfield. As I write this article (Wednesday) I hope that today I am able to tell you that the leading clubs in Scotland grasped the opportunity to establish once and for all Premier 1's ambitions, vision and interest in participating in the improvement of Scottish rugby.

Finally…

Many congratulations to Ally “Disco” Forbes on his 30th birthday celebrations. As we all know, Disco is captain of GHK this season and a leader of men on AND off the field. He is having a do on the top floor of the Pavilion this evening and I’m sure he would be delighted if some of you stopped by the clubhouse for a quiet beer.

Next home games

Saturday, October 11, K.O. 3:00 PM
1st XV Old Anniesland Melrose RFC
2nd XV New Anniesland Dundee HSFP RFC

Kenny Baillie
Chief Executive
04.10.2008

This article was originally posted on 2-Oct-2008, 20:11 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 2-Oct-2008, 21:16.