Glasgow Hawks 19 - 15 Ayr: Hawks find reward on front foot


The Scotsman reports
Published Date: 20 September 2010
By Iain Morrison
at Old Anniesland
And then there was one. With Ayr falling to a resurgent Hawks it is only Boroughmuir who still boast a 100 per cent record after the first five rounds of the championship.
Kenny Murry's men were strangely subdued at Anniesland on Saturday, a couple of scuffles signalled some intent but the usual brute physicality that is Ayr's traditional calling card was absent along with, it has to be said, several key players.

Both sides scored two tries apiece and they sum up the story of the match pretty well. Ayr's efforts came from the muscular interventions of Damien Kelly and Scott Nimmo with both men covering no more than a foot between them for their tries after a series of pick and drives at the end of each half.

In contrast Hawks valiantly tried to keep the tempo of the match high but they were thwarted by the opposition, too many handling errors and some fussy whistling from the reserve referee after the main man limped off after six minutes.

Full back Craig Gossman scored the first try in the first half before creating the winner for winger Joffy White after the break. With two tries each the match came down to goal kickers and Hawks' Mike Adamson proved more consistent than Ross Curle for the visitors. The little fly-half kicked two good penalties in the first 40 and another after the break even if one overly optimistic effort from 56 metres fell well short.

Adamson was in the Hawks side that lifted three consecutive titles in the middle of the decade so how does this side compare to the championship winners of recent times?

"It's still early days. Back then the side was full of experienced heads whereas this one is still growing, still improving. I don't mean any disrespect to them but our first three matches were probably against teams that are going to struggle a bit this year but we picked things up this week and last week. We should have beaten Currie last Saturday and we have beaten Ayr, the two stand-out clubs from last season, so that's a real positive."

"Last year we struggled a little with the physicality, we couldn't get on the front foot but this year we have improved a lot in that area and we are still trying to play rugby. There were plenty of dropped balls out there but usually because we are trying to keep the it alive. We said in one huddle that Ayr's players were going down injured every five minutes so we were desperate to keep the pace of the game high and run them ragged."

It was something of a surprise that Ayr didn't play a bit more rugby because in full back Grant Anderson and Curle they boast two of the best broken field runners in the game. Instead it was left to the Gossman brothers to show what can be done with the ball in hand and Adamson to add the icing on an excellent win.

This article was originally posted on 20-Sep-2010, 07:18 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 20-Sep-2010, 07:22.