Hawks steer steady course

WILLIAM PAUL
AT OLD ANNIESLAND


Glasgow Hawks 33
Boroughmuir 17

DEFENDING champions Glasgow Hawks have become the supertanker of Scottish club rugby, leaving all BT Premiership rivals floundering in their wake.


It is going to take a long time for any other team to slow Hawks stately progress towards the distant end-of-season horizon. Stopping it is another matter. Nine games have produced nine victories, the highest number of points scored in the league, and a 12-point gap at the top of the table.

Boroughmuir on Saturday were just the latest object to bump and scrape against the supertanker's hull, causing brief concern as they sneaked into the lead in the second half, but ultimately being over run and cast aside: and this despite matching the home side try for try.

"I think I might have been the only person in the ground that thought we could win when we went ahead in the second half," said Boroughmuir coach Bruce Reekie. "We don't seem to be mentally tough enough to put teams away when we get the chance. Hawks are."

Boroughmuir, with a bit of decent luck and a dose of self confidence, could easily have won this game. Instead they were denied even the priceless bonus point they so richly deserved and were left rooted in the table's lower half.

The post match analysis in the Hawks dressing room was all introspective, largely ignoring the fact that Boroughmuir had actually been the better team over the full 80 minutes and focused on their own faults. "I think we actually made it easy for Boroughmuir," said coach David Wilson. We made problems for ourselves."

The final margin may have flattered Hawks, stretched by a flawless kicking performance from man of the match Mike Adamson - seven from seven - that made the difference, but as a measure of the stature of the defending champions it was a pretty precise reflection of the current state of the rugby world. Boroughmuir engineered the first real chance to grab a try but skipper Rory Couper, more used to taking passes on the wing than giving them from full back, failed to deliver the final pass with a man outside him as they crossed the 22 at pace.

He was tackled and Hawks immediately went up to the other end and a sweet exchange of passes between stand off Murray Strang and centre Steven Duffy left the defenders chasing shadows as Strang strolled over the line.

Hawks then switched to non-urgent mode, and Boroughmuir built up some momentum which was capitalised upon when openside flanker Angus Martyn went over just before half-time.

Adamson kicked a second penalty before the half was over, and a third minutes after the restart but it was Boroughmuir who now seized the initiative with two tries in quick succession. A tap penalty inside the 22 kept up the momentum of a flowing attack and allowed Ben Fisher to crash over from short range. Then replacement scrum half Calum Cusiter, adding an cutting edge behind his pack, suddenly broke away in his own half and found full back Couper in the winger's position on his left to take the perfect scoring pass 30 metres out. Both tries went unconverted but put the visitors in the lead by a single point as the game went into the final quarter.

For a moment Hawks seemed to succumb to desperation when, with 15 minutes still to go, rather than build a move patiently Strang attempted a long range drop goal that spiralled wide. However, Boroughmuir made a complete hash of the drop out, losing the ball and going over the top as they tried to recover it. Adamson stepped up to restore the lead to his team and switch them back into urgent mode.

Within minutes a four-man overlap had been created and blindside Greg Francis was over in the right corner. Adamson's towering conversion from the touch line turned the screw and the win was sealed with a third try as Cox knocked a hole in the defence with one of his trademark charges then off-loading to centre Iain Kennedy to go right through it.

Scorers: Hawks: Tries - M Strang, G Francis, I Kennedy; Cons - M Adamson 3 Pens: M Adamson 4. Boroughmuir: Tries - A Martyn, B Fisher, R Couper. Cons: A Hadden .

Glasgow Hawks: M Adamson, A Maclay, I Kennedy, S Duffy, S Gordon, M Strang, R McKnight, E Milligan, S Fell, N Cox, S Warnock, M Sitch, G Francis, S Forrest, N McKenzie. Subs used: G McFadyen for Cox 60, R Maxton for McKenzie 40, S Biggart for McKnight 40, S Low for Maclay 56.

Boroughmuir: R Couper, M Brown, M Clapperton, S Ruddick, R Cairns, A Hadden, A Knight, F Lait, K Traynor, D Wright, G Scott, G McCallum, O Brown, B Fisher, A Martyn. Subs used: C Cusiter for Knight 45, G Cottrell for Martyn 56.

Referee: David Jack (Madras FP).

This article was posted on 24-Oct-2005, 07:39 by Hugh Barrow.