Hawks Development XV 26 Ayr Under 21 5
25th October 2005
Old Anniesland

The youngsters of Hawks and Ayr produced a fast moving and highly entertaining match on a wet but remarkably firm pitch at Old Anniesland. Although Hawks had most of the possession and territorial advantage Ayr proved to be a consistent threat throughout the match.
Hawks lead 14-0 at half time thanks to a try by hooker Sean Fell after 12 minutes following a series of rucks and mauls close to the Ayr goal line and a thundering run from midfield by James Small, both tries were converted by Chris Breckenridge.
The first half was played at a furious pace that could not be sustained throughout.
After the interval, when a number of personnel changes had been made, the game became a little scrappier and it took Hawks until the 70th minute to score again. This time it was Danny Hoffman who was driven over after a good handling movement came to an end.
In the last 10 minutes Ayr demonstrated that they were not a spent force as the scored an excellent try after some good handling by both forwards and backs.
This proved to be a wake up call for Hawks who worked the ball back to their opponents 22 and Chris Breckenridge was able to ghost through a tired defence to score under the posts. His own conversion was the final kick of the match for a 25-5 victory.
The match was played in excellent spirit and very well refereed by a young American ref currently studying at Glasgow University.
There were some notable performances, particularly from the forwards who, considering that it was a scratch side, organised their lineouts, rucks and mauls to good effect. In the backs the strong running of James Small in the centre, powerful touchline kicking of Chris Breckenridge at stand off, and the control at the base of the scum by Sean Murray impressed. There is definitely hope for the future


FROM AYR WEBSITE
DEVELOPMENT XV v HAWKS 26/10/2005
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Hawks 26 Ayr 5

The development side travelled last night to Anniesland, where on the first team pitch under floodlights they played a Hawk's development side at U21.

This is an opportunity for both sides to see how the younger players are maturing and give them a game at their own age level.

Ayr through injury required a prop to assist them last night and after frantic calls Zander McIlwham and Kenny Fairbain at GHA stepped in to
provide Jason Clark, who on last nights showing will be a welcome addition down at Braidholm in the near future, many thanks to Kenny and Zander.

It is difficult to put together a team who do not play regularly and ask them to play as though they were seasoned campaigners so what you are really looking for in a game such as this, is individual skills, decision making
and unit skills. This often gives you a base on which to improve players individual performance and too look and see how they would gel in the next year or so.

The game itself was played at a fast pace with early exchanges of kicking and from our position we were not always best placed there, allowing Hawks to counter attack well. Every team has to be able to pass the ball and the decision when to pass is a key area, Hawks it would be fair to say did that better than us but we did try and run it more so that would expose any weaknesses.

Their was sustained periods for both sides when phase after phase followed with the ball in hand but invariably it would breakdown with a knock-on and the retention of the ball in contact is a key area.

The actual breakdown in the second half became a mess and the number of penalties awarded to Ayr in any other game would have seen a yellow card
being shown to Hawks but again these are areas the coaches need to see to build on.

One of the areas we need to develop in is in midfield when too often we let Hawks run at us and any "hits" put in were often missed or weak and that is not something Ayr are usually known for.

Overall there was a lot to be taken from this exercise and a match report detailing the events of the game could have been provided but I am sure those that follow the development of the players are more interested to see where we are in terms of that goal.

There is a lot of raw talent which needs to be honed and having spoken to Craig after the match, as he always keeps a keen eye on the developing sides, we think the future looks bright and individual feedback to the players will be given.

Coach

This article was originally posted on 26-Oct-2005, 17:25 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 30-Oct-2005, 15:08.