Some of our mature readers especially those who reside within the leafy suburbia of north west Glasgow will recall with great affection Cammy Little's weekly column in that fine journal the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald
Writing under the banner of "View of the Union" his incisive insight and rapier wit both entertained and informed
For this week he returns to the pen standing in for Blackies Blog

Hawks 2s 28 - Stirling County 2s 34

Old Anniesland 4th Sept 2010

With a strong looking 2nd XV, Hawks went into this game with high hopes of a victory against a County side that have won the last 2 league titles and are always a strong, well organised team.

It was a tough match in ideal conditions and both teams could claim to have deserved the points. The boys will know they could have done better and with some composure in County’s 22 late in the game should have won the game, however with too many errors throughout the game County’s 6 tries to our 4 would have seen a bigger margin if their kicker had been on target a few more times.

Playing into the wind in the first half we immediately put ourselves under pressure by taking the ball into our 22 then kicking out on the full. From the lineout the County 9 strolled round the back to find our defence missing and cruised in (0-7). We were struggling to string passes together and get some continuity but a great break down the right touchline from new west-country centre Tom Preece saw him held up just short. A couple of well recycled balls allowed the returning Gary Strain to crash over from a couple of metres. Robbie McGregor converted well from wide on the right (7-7).

A couple of minutes later Tom was at it again as he gathered a loose ball in midfield around 30 metres out. Showing great feet and good strength to step out of a couple of tackles and step past the close defenders he powered through the middle of County’s defence and touched down under the posts. Robbie converted for 14-7.

Stirling were soon back in our 22 thanks to clever kicking from their 10 and a gusty wind behind. Having won our lineout, an ineffectual clearance kick from the back of the maul landed in their 15’s arms about 40 yards out – he spun it left through a couple of pairs of hands for their winger to squeeze into the corner past Jonno’s tackle. Conversion was missed and after 15 minutes it was 14-12.

Things settled down for a while as we struggled to compete with their larger pack and some smart kicking in behind us. Sean Murray had a couple of decent breaks and kick and chases and we looked threatening in the back line, however we turned over too much ball and didn’t do enough to retain it through phases to build any pressure.

Eventually from a couple of penalties County kicked to the corner and from the 5m lineout drove over and scored. Conversion missed 14-17. 5 minutes later we defended another lineout in the same position but were then penalised at the back of the subsequent scrum. County kicked to the corner and drove the lineout again, leading to another unconverted score. 14-22 at Half Time.

With the wind behind we started the 2nd half strongly. Some good handling allowed Jonno to make a break down the left and fed inside to Tom who beat a couple of men to run in to the right of the posts, however a tremendous tackle somehow managed to hold him up over the line and the danger was cleared.

Having absorbed a fair bit of County pressure for 15 minutes we started to gain a bit of territory and possession and finally scored after some great running from Robbie Hair from our 22 followed by good support from Sandy Bruce and Harky to allow Robbie McGregor to run in from the 22. Converting his own try for 21-22.

It looked like we were in the driving seat however County hit back with a great solo try from their scrum half, who broke through the middle of a ruck, exploiting our lack of defence at the back, chipped ahead and beat Sean to the bounce. We got a break as the ball fell off the kicking tee and their 10 missed the kick in front of the posts to leave us only one score down (21-27) with 15 minutes left.

We pressed for the last 15 minutes failing to take a couple of good opportunities however as we tried to force it with a couple of minutes left a long pass in their 22 was intercepted and run back the length of the pitch to make the game safe at 21-34. There was just time for us to score a last try as Sean made a good break up the left with Harky eventually scoring after a couple of phases. Robbie converted for a final score of 28-34.

Played W D L F : A Diff. Bonus Points
1 Boroughmuir RFC 3 3 0 0 166:25 141 3 15
2 Stirling County RFC 3 3 0 0 85:58 27 3 15
3 Glasgow Hawks RFC 3 2 0 1 115:54 61 4 12
4 Heriot's RFC 3 2 0 1 84:34 50 3 11
5 Melrose RFC 2 2 0 0 81:34 47 2 10
6 Dundee HSFP 3 2 0 1 70:48 22 2 10
7 Stewart's Melville FP RFC 3 1 0 2 63:66 -3 2 6
8 Edinburgh Academical FC 3 1 0 2 62:114 -52 2 6
9 Watsonians FC 3 1 0 2 44:91 -47 1 5
10 Currie RFC 3 0 0 3 43:91 -48 1 1
11 Aberdeen Grammar Rugby

This article was originally posted on 5-Sep-2010, 18:26 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 5-Sep-2010, 18:29.