EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS REPORTS

Watsonians 21, Glasgow Hawks 22: It all goes Wright for Hawks man at Myreside




By BILL LOTHIAN
PETER WRIGHT looked like the cat who got the cream on leaving Myreside on Saturday night – and for two reasons.

As coaching director of Glasgow Hawks he had helped steer his club further from the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership relegation zone at the expense of Watsonians, whose 21-22 defeat leaves them third bottom.

But the good news for 'Sonians is that, amid the gloom, some are still generating quality and Scottish clubs international coach Wright was also delighted to see Dougie Brown in the sort of form that can earn him a start against Ireland on Friday back at Myreside.

"Dougie's a good player, a big strong lad with good hands," said Wright in recognising a two-try contribution by the home centre to take his total for the season up to an impressive six.

Wright added: "At this position in the league it is not about class it is about (overall) desire and I think we had it a bit more."

The vindication of Wright's argument is that teams can't expect to be successful playing a quarter of proceedings with 14 men through sin-binnings, which is what happened to Watsonians.

In the first half, prop Tyler Hawes spent ten minutes on the sidelines for ball-killing to be followed after the change-around by second row Torrie Callander's yellow card for dissent.

It was the second successive match in which Callander had been sin-binned and, according to the Watsonian website, today, his seventh of the season.

Understandably, the situation left 'Sonians' new forwards coach Matt Mustchin, the Scotland flanker, frustrated at disciplinary woes. "We have to sit down and sort it out," he admitted.

It will have to happen sooner rather than later because although they have a five-point advantage on the four-game run-in and with a match in hand the second bottom side, Hawick, have still to visit Watsonians.

That means one more slip could take matters out of the Edinburgh team's hands, although there are other reasons to be optimistic, including the honourable mention given by former Scotland and Lions cap Wright to Michael Fedo, despite the teenage flanker having a difficult afternoon adapting to the interpretations of a referee believed to be undertaking only his second assignment at this level.

Mustchin, certainly, preferred to accentuate the positives, saying: "In the first half we had five opportunities to score and scored five times. Although in the second half we didn't see much ball, the tools are there and if they can cut out a lot of mistakes our backs are dynamite."

It was indeed a real curate's egg of a performance by Watsonians who led 21-6 downwind at half-time and the inconsistency was captured by head coach Bruce Aitchison with a remark based on the contribution of centre Ben Di Rollo. "Ben made breaks and looked dangerous although he kicked the ball away," he said. If Aitchison was at odds with Peter Wright when he also said, "I don't think Hawks wanted it any more than us – it was just one of those days", he would be more likely to concur with Matt Mustchin, insisting "that wasn't so much a (losing bonus) point gained as three lost".

Matters looked ominous for Watsonians inside the opening half hour when they suffered three let-offs. First, Hawks were penalised deep inside the home 22 after lock Mat Whittleston had driven ferociously in a sign of things to come.

Then both Ian Noble and Sean Murray knocked on during attacks. However, it wasn't all down to Hawks' profligacy, both Di Rollo and Jamie Blackwood produced super cover tackles on Grant Strang. Credit Watsonians, too, with hitting on the break in overturning an early penalty by Mike Rainey – he was later to miss in front of the posts – through a try by Brown converted by Mike Ker.

Rainey struck again but the same two scorers dominated the rest of the half for 'Sonians to turn at 21-6. That Rainey penalty blunder offered further home encouragement but when Jono Wright was allowed too much space out wide before running in behind the posts for a converted try alarm bells began to ring.

With more composure, the storm could have been weathered. For all that he enjoyed a bright and assured first half, highlighted by the break and pop-up pass for Brown's first try, 'Sonian full back Nash looked less comfortable thereafter. This included when confronted by Wright's try- scoring surge and sticking too close to Di Rollo's shoulder while overlapping, although the centre will question his decision to kick with the line unguarded.

Unable to believe their good fortune which included Callander's sin-binning when trailing 21-16 after 62 minutes, Hawks made the most of it through two further Rainey penalties.

A rainy day for 'Sonians, all right, and if anybody was going to put boot to ball it should have been Mike Ker, whose place kick efforts in the tricky wind looked accomplished. With a bit of fine tuning, can this increasingly mature stand-off be the one to haul them out of the mire?

Scorers:

Watsonians: Tries: Brown (2); Conversion: Ker; Penalties: Ker (3). Hawks: Try: Wright; Conversion: Rainey; Penalties: Rainey (5).

Watsonians: A Nash, T Saena, D Brown, B Di Rollo, M Learmonth, M Ker, J Blackwood (c), T Hawes, G Wood, K Coertze, T Callander, A Fisher, M Fedo, A Tweed, I Condell. Subs: E Crawford, H Grant, J Thrush, S Kennedy, E Clarke.

Hawks: C Gossman, J Wright, I Noble (c), G McDonald, S Murray, M Rainey, E Morrison, G Strain, J Maclay, G Mories, M Whittleston, A Kelly, G Francis, G Strang, G Harkness. Subs: J Lohar, R Hamilton, T McGarrity, P Boyer, R Hair.

This article was posted on 9-Mar-2009, 14:54 by Hugh Barrow.