IAIN MORRISON SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY


THE 2005/06 club season kicks off next weekend with Glasgow Hawks aiming for an impressive hat-trick of championships after winning their first-ever Premier One title just two years ago. Flag bearers for Glasgow rugby, Hawks have lost three key players to the pro team and how they handle that lshould determine their fate. No-one expects another 21-point margin of victory, as happened last season.

The west coast outfit will face a strong challenge from the east in the form of Heriot's and Boroughmuir, both of whom are almost always competitive. Ayr ensure that the south west is represented and Aberdeen's continued presence gives fans in the north east something to shout about.

But while Melrose will present a challenge there are long odds available on the Premier One trophy ending up on a Borders mantelpiece with Hawick, Scotland's most famous club, more likely to find themselves fighting to avoid the ignominy of relegation. Three clubs go down to facilitate a ten-team Premier One next year and if Hawick fall out the top flight it will be for the first time since leagues began.

Mansfield Park has seen such an exodus of players during the summer that the turnstiles must have been rotating at the speed of a carnival ride. One player has signed with the Borders pro team, but five others have moved to other premiership teams and will line up against that famous green jersey at some point this season. Cammy Murray is already sporting a black eye after bumping into his former team-mates at last weekend's Kelso Sevens.

The experienced winger has moved to arch-rivals Melrose where he is joined by Hawick prop Andrew Gillie. Meanwhile, three Green stalwarts who live in Edinburgh have opted to play for Heriots; Cammy Bruce, John Houston and Roddy Deans.

The spotlight has inevitably fallen on the flanker, who not only skippered Hawick last year but whose legendary father, Scotland hooker Colin, offers a painful reminder of the Green Machine's glory days in the 1970's and 1980's. Hawick president Billy Murray was probably reflecting the thoughts of many in the town when he accused those leaving of seeking "fame and fortune" but while Deans is looking to further his career, he takes exception to the tag of bounty hunter.

"It was a very difficult decision to make," he said last week. "I'd been thinking about it for a couple of years and I was going to do it last season but my mum persuaded me not to. Her death in January just cut another link with the town.

"I've lived in Edinburgh for six or seven years now and it had come to a point where I just needed a change of lifestyle. We had to leave at 4.30pm to get to training in Hawick, the journey was two hours in the rush hour, and we wouldn't get back until 10.30 or 11 o'clock at night.

"That was OK when we were successful, but in recent years we were coming down from Edinburgh and some nights others couldn't be bothered to make the trip from Hawick. The nucleus of the squad retired, or went travelling, and some of the young boys just didn't want to put the work in."

Deans denies that he is being paid any money whatsoever, Heriot's confirm this claim, and the highly-rated flanker actually turned down lucrative offers elsewhere in order to further his career at a club that currently boast the strongest squad in Scotland.

What's more, he is actually enjoying his rugby again which is why anyone plays the game.

"Things are a bit more relaxed here," says Deans. "I am able to do my own thing, concentrate on my own game rather than worry about everyone else's for a change. The culture is completely different and there is more competition, I am having to train like crazy just to get in the Heriot's side. And my journey to training takes just five minutes."

At the age of t25, Deans still has time to make his mark in the professional game and, but for a couple of shoulder injuries, he might already have done so. He is training with the Edinburgh back-up group and Rob Moffat also has him involved in the Scotland Sevens squad, ideal preparation for a flanker with ambitions.

But the loss of their influential skipper and four others will not help Hawick in what looks like being a long tough winter for the famous club. Last season the club ended a highly respectable seventh in the league but got the fright of their lives on April 2, 2005. One day earlier and a 19-80 score line at Mansfield could have been considered an April fool but there wasn't much laughter when Glasgow Hawks wrapped up the title by putting 12 tries past the Greens at home.

Deans missed that particular humiliation because of a ski holiday booked, with the club's blessing, before the re-arranged fixture had been set for that particular date. But still he suffered the inevitable accusation of letting the side down, something that has been thrown at him since his recent move.

Hawick produce plenty of talent with two teams from the town contesting the under-18 final last season but it has great difficulty holding on to it as more youngsters eschew a trade and instead leave home to attend college. More worryingly, one club official reckoned that there was the best part of an entire Hawick XV playing for other clubs in the Premier leagues and, after the summer exodus, he is probably right.

In the absence of a generous benefactor, it is difficult to see any obvious solutions for Hawick save the wholesale economic regeneration of the area and that, whether the much-vaunted Border rail link appears or not, is a long way off.

When Hawick last had success, winning back-to-back championships in 2000 and 2001, they did it with five foreign players in the pack just one of whom is still there. With the money gone the new Hawick coach, Jim Hay, would like to restrict the foreigners in the game and he offers one potential answer to the club's woes.

"The only solution is a merger between all the Hawick teams," insists Hay. "It will happen at some point in the future but maybe too late. If we merged with the semi-junior sides we could field a 1st XV, three other teams called YM, Lindeen and Quins, and two under-18 sides from the PSA and Wanderers. Hawick Trades have already folded and we should merge now before the town loses any more clubs."

The idea has merit, but it has always been resisted by the junior clubs, proud of their independence and reluctant to be swallowed by their bigger cousin. It will take a change of heart before this happens and change is never a quick process in this part of the world. Some in Hawick blame Deans and the others for moving but the player insists he has also had plenty of backing.

"At the end of the day I owe everything to Hawick," says Deans. "I can understand why people are judging me but, to be honest, most people have been very supportive."

The message that Deans and the others deliver is not a welcome one for any of the Border clubs; young men naturally gravitate towards the big cities for a host of reasons. Shooting the messenger won't change that reality, or help Hawick avoid the drop.

This article was posted on 21-Aug-2005, 09:27 by Hugh Barrow.