Stirling 5 - 48 Glasgow Hawks
Lewis Stuart at Bridgehaugh Park



THE Hawks show rolls on. They were too big, too strong, too fast and too clever for the bottom club in the BT Premiership, cruising to an eight try demolition that could easily have taken them past the half century had Mike Adamson, the kicker, brought his usual reliability with him.
It was the closest that the Hawks have come so far this season to the perfect performance that David Wilson, their coach, has been demanding. Even though they dropped the intensity for a spell after turning round with the result and bonus point secured in the first half, they stepped up the pace again for a rousing finale that could easily have taken them past the half century if one of Adamson's three kicks that hit the post had gone over.

“We showed that when we string a few phases together and keep possession, we can play some rugby,” said David Wilson, the Hawks coach, afterwards. “People forget how many changes we have had to make from last season and it always takes a little time for a new team to gel. Maybe they are taking a little while to get used used to my coaching as well but we are getting there.”

Which is ominous news for their rivals. County were, after all, a stronger side than the one that nearly won at Watsonians last week, but any home optimism was was short-lived. The Hawks dominated every facet of the game and after Eric Milligan, the captain and prop, had ploughed over after Steven Duffy and Mark Sitch had done the hard work, the only remaining question was the margin of the Hawks win and how quickly they would get the try bonus.

In the end, it took them 37 minutes, the forwards controlling the set piece and, crucially bossing the break down with total dominance.

No surprise, therefore that Stirling found themselves under the cosh for pretty well the whole game with Mark Sitch, the Hawks No 8, racing over for a brace of tries in support of the backs, and then Iain Kennedy slipped through after Steve Biggart, the scrum-half nipped blind. The second half saw further scores for Richard McKnight, Gordon McFadyen, Murray Strang and Ally McLay with Stirling at least getting on the scoreboard with Ben Addison racing through to put Richard Mill, the wing, in for their only try.

This article was posted on 30-Oct-2005, 09:24 by Hugh Barrow.