Hawks still unbeaten as young stars excel
Published on 6 Sep 2010

Kevin Ferrie, Chief Rugby Writer

Glasgow Hawks 46, Stirling County 26

After a fine weekend for Glasgow Hawks their director of rugby is growing in confidence that the club has more promising players who can follow in Weir’s way.

Peter Wright was first to acknowledge on Saturday that the 46-26 scoreline which saw them maintain their 100% record of wins with bonus points was rather flattering.

However, there were several impressive performances in the course of the win which drew them a point clear of the field at the top of Premier One from players Wright thinks have the capacity to join Duncan Weir, their team-mate of last season, in the elite.

The 19-year-old stand-off was on the pitch for only 15 minutes at Firhill on Friday night when Wright was part of the BBC Scotland team commentating on a fine comeback by Glasgow Warriors, yet was rightly deemed man of the match for turning the game his side’s way. His justification of that old maxim ‘good enough, old enough,’ should only inspire his contemporaries.

“I think that may be where we have to go in Scottish rugby over the next few years given the financial constraints under which we are operating,” said Wright, who is well placed to make such observations having recently been appointed to the SRU Council as Premier One’s representative.

“It might be by default that the pro team coaches have to start looking more to the club game, but you look at how Duncan Weir has performed, how Lee Jones is doing since joining Edinburgh from Selkirk, how Henry Pyrgos has done in coming from club rugby and how Jon Welsh has done when he was never part of the academy set-up.

“The SRU talks about having to make evidence-based decisions for everything... well there’s the evidence.”

Among those potentially capable of similarly stepping up Wright identified the Gossman brothers; both Saturday’s scrum-halves teenager Kris Hamilton and Peter Jericivech, who was arguably even more influential when moving to stand-off; Tom Steven, a powerful runner who is also still in his teens; David Milne, whose early departure to protect a foot injury disrupted the back play; George Hunter, a prop who is already in the pro team system; and perhaps most exciting of all Ross Miller.

As for that aforementioned provision of evidence, Miller looks like the latest who can justify the view many of us hold, that almost every club in the country has at least one player capable of playing at significantly higher standard.

Miller may have work to do in terms of using that physique to its full defensively, but the big Ayrshireman took some stopping on Saturday, not only when registering his team’s first and last tries.

Stirling proved as tenacious as ever once they got over gifting Hawks their two early tries, the second of which was finished off by Dean Kelbrick, the Scottish qualified, South African centre.

The visitors’ three tries, from Graeme Lindsay, Campbell Rae and Craig Deacons, put them two scores clear entering the final quarter and they were still a point in front as late as the 73rd minute.

Both sides were poised to pick up a bonus point win having registered three tries, Craig Gossman’s dazzling footwork having produced Hawks’ third. But it was Hawks who raised their game, doubling their try tally in those closing stages. Joffy White put them ahead before Adrian Smith secured the win ahead of Miller’s second touchdown.

This article was posted on 6-Sep-2010, 13:42 by Hugh Barrow.