Watsonians 34 Glasgow Hawks 31

For the first 60 minutes of this extraordinary game at Myreside, played in excellent conditions, Hawks controlled every aspect of the game and scored 5 unanswered tries to lead by 31-3 going into the final quarter. Watsonians stung by this suddenly burst into action and scored 31 points to secure a narrow victory with a try in the final minute of injury time.
What happened to Hawks during this period? Unless you were there you may ask and I am sure that the Hawks team and backroom staff are probably asking the same question. The answer is that Watsonians changed their halfbacks and Michael Kerr came on at scrum half to dictate play with a fantastic display of kicking from hand and goal kicking to help his side to grasp the most unlikely of victories and set off jubilant celebrations from the Watsonians faithful. Perhaps Hawks became complacent and certainly they were unlucky enough to lose 4 key players to injury leaving them to play with a make shift line up with a number of players having to play out of position. However the main reason is that their excellent game plan and first time tackling suddenly deserted them leaving gaping holes in the defence that the Watsonians backs took every opportunity to exploit.
This was not a game for the faint hearted especially if you were not a neutral but it was a marvellous advertisement for Club rugby that should have the crowds flocking back to watch the game.
In comparison to the remainder of the game the first quarter was fairly tame as two nervous sides tried to probe for weaknesses in the opposition. The only real excitement was Watsonians rolling maul failing to get the touch down after a well controlled drive. Slowly a pattern started to emerge as the Hawks forwards especially in the scrimmage started to get control.
In the 23rd minute the game burst into life when after a series of rucks following a quickly taken penalty Tom Preece suddenly burst through the defensive line and used his pace and power to touchdown under the posts for the opening try, converted by Mike Adamson. Hawks were now well on top but in the 33rd minute Watsonians broke away and Brian Walls kicked a long distance penalty goal to reduce the margin to 3-7.
Hawks stormed back and in the 38th minute following two rucks on their opponent’s line George Ooman found space on the touchline and dived over for an unconverted try. Straight from the kick off Hawks gathered the ball and set Tom Preece off on a great run through the centre of the field and although stopped had enough support to recycle the ball and feed it to winger Tom Steven who scored in the left hand corner.
Half time Watsonians 3 Hawks 17.
Throughout the half the Hawks had given little away in defence and were extremely dangerous on the counter attack capitalising on the power of their pack who despite the early loss of second row forward Ruaraidh Wilson to an injury.
Watsonians started the second half brightly enough but Hawks soon returned to the attack. Their confidence was high that they spurned kickable penalties to kick for the corner. In the 48th minute this paid dividends when Ross Miller used his full height to stretch over for the fourth try and the bonus point. Mike Adamson converted for a 3-24 lead.
Hawks were now rampant and constantly on the attack. This paid off when after some slick handling Tony Herron sliced through for the 5th try again converted by Mike Adamson to extend the lead to 3-31.
At this stage Hawks shuffled their team as they had lost David Milne, Tony Herron and Grant Strang to injuries.
16 minutes into the half and Watsonians got back onto the scoreboard with a penalty kicked by Michael Kerr.
At the start of the final quarter a poor kick from Hawks gave the lively Watsonians backs a chance to run at the reshuffled Hawks backs and the found that the defence was not of the same quality as earlier in the game and replacement winger Chris Scott scored a simple try in the corner. Michael Kerr landed a good conversion to narrow the score to 13-31. Watsonians came back again and from a 5 metre scrum they found a gap in the centre to run through for another try converted by Michael Kerr.
20-31 and game on.
Hawks clearly decided that they had had enough of this and for a lengthy period kept the ball tight with rucks and mauls up the stand touchline. It was fairly effective and it looked as if it would be enough to ensure the win.
However the most controversial aspect of the game was soon to occur. Hawks kicked for the corner and Watsonians tried to run the ball clear. They were stopped in their tracks and turned over. Hawks spun the ball wide and the Hawks supporters howled for offside as the Watsonians backs had not got back to the line of the ruck and the remainder of their players were streaming back through the Hawks threequarter line.
The ball reached Mike Adamson but his scoring pass was intercepted by Rory Steele the full back and he ran the full length of the field for a try. This was larceny on a grand scale and even the more fair minded of the Watsonians support agreed.
Hawks were shell shocked and in the final minute failed to respond quickly enough to a long kick that stopped just in goal. In a foot race the winger just got to it first. To add insult to injury that man Michael Kerr converted from the touchline to ensure the most unlikely of victories.
If anything comes out of this Hawks will learn that they have to play for a full 80 minutes as two often they have conceded late scores.
Hawks salvaged two points from the game and now lie 5 points behind Watsonians and 5 ahead of Hawick. A long winter lies ahead and it will be interesting to see how things develop when the ground gets softer.
Next Saturday Hawks are at home to Biggar. Please note that the kick off is at 2pm

This article was posted on 28-Oct-2012, 22:19 by Hugh Barrow.