Stirling County 27-24 Glasgow Hawks

This fixture never fails to entertain! This was the lowest scoring of last 5 encounters! With the way Hawks  started the subsequent half-time score was hard to believe. Great continuity and hitting spaces hard with runners, superb link play by Paul Henderson and Davide Barbieri created space for Hamish King to finish beside posts. 5-0, after 3mins, conv missed.
Stirling came into game when clearing kick charged down and their 10 gathered and fell over line. Pressure back on Hawks immediately with clever Stirling line-out , peel to tail and ball eventually wide and score in corner. 5-10 after 14mins. Stirling monopolised possession and heavy pressure gave some space for them to dance through Hawks' stretched defence.
Huge physical confrontations evenly matched but Hawks struggled to get on front foot and pressure told again  after 25mins when couple of tackles missed and Stirling took advantage, 5-22 . Forwards battled it out till just before half-time when Stirling won good line-out ball again and patiently picked and drove over line. 5-27 HT.
With time for a refocus Hawks then produced an awesome 2nd half to give us a textbook game of 2 halves!!!
Hawks increased their abrasiveness in all contacts and dominated possession. Huge performances from Hendo, CT and Hamish especially put Stirling under pressure at set piece and round fringes. Space began to be created and Rob Wilson reacted quickly to turn-over ball to scoot over, 10-27, 50mins. Real damage being done round fringes as the forwards slugged it out. Hamish cleverly spun out of a rolling maul to saunter over line. Aubrey's conv, 17-27 after 60 mins. Despite heavy pitch Hawks now playing with great tempo, resulted in opportunist try of day and embarrassing YouTube celebration moment! Great line picked by Sean Murray tore defensive line apart. Celebration?!? Another Aubrey conv, 24-27. With full 10mins to play, Hawks on the offensive but blew chances to break the cycle of glorious defeats in this fixture! For the neutral an absorbing game but another tough defeat after so much effort  and spirit to almost overhaul a 22pt deficit!

This article was posted on 19-Nov-2011, 07:56 by Hugh Barrow.