Heriots 31 Glasgow Hawks 38

Heriots
Tries​Nimmo 35, 56, Maltman 60, Toolis 65, Goudie 77
Con​Wilson 33, 60, 65
Hawks
Tries​Leckie 5, Steven 25, 70, MacLay 30, Lowe 36, Lohoar 40
Con​Wight 5, 36, 40, 70

Glasgow Hawks won their second trophy of the year as the returned from their visit to Edinburgh with the Bill McLaren Shield. However more importantly they also pillaged 5 points which all but secures their place in the RBS Premiership, ensuring that Scotland’s largest city will be represented at the top level of Scottish club rugby next season.
Hawks started off at a breakneck pace and left the home side reeling within 5 minutes of the start, after Haddon McPherson had performed a mazy rune through the Nails’ cover. Tackled short the ball was quickly recycled and Stephen Leckie was on hand to go over for the try, with Scott Wight on hand for the conversion. Hawks had the lead before heriots had completed their warm up.
Heriots did put the visitors under pressure for a time but Hawks soaked up the pressure and were able to exploit Heriots failings when they couldn’t get across the line. The second visitors try came in Tom Steven burst from the half way line beat his marker and avoiding the chasing defence to go over in 25 minutes.
There now followed a period of 8 minutes when Hawks scored another two tries. The first came from Ally MacLay as the back line combined to tear a hole in the home defence going over close to the posts in 30 minutes. A fourth try from Gavin Lowe in the 33rd minutes secured a try bonus and Hawks were 24-0 ahead before half-time.
Heriots eventually got onto the scoreboard when Russell Nimmo went over for a try with 5 minutes left in the half after some good forward play.
But the last word in the opening Act was left to John Lohoar who ran in Hawks’ 5th try on the stroke of half time.
If Hawks thought the game was done and dusted at 31-7 at half time they were to receive a rude awakening. Heriots started to play a more restricted forward game. This sucked Hawks’ defence in time and again, creating the space that the Edinburgh side were seeking. Given the pressure there was an air of inevitability when Russell Nimmo scored a second try in 56 minutes. Then Heriots narrowed the gap to 12 points on the hour mark it seemed Hawks now would have to face a very long 20 minutes, this time flanker, Michael Maltman scored the try. This torture was added to as Steven Findlay received a Yellow Card, somewhat unjustly as the alleged misdemeanour had a different team-mate perpetrating.
Down to 14 men Hawks lost a score very quickly and on 65 minutes the gap was reduced to 5 points after replacement Ben Toolis went over for a fourth forwards try.
The Hawks support had been here before as they worried that the result was edging away. However Heriots were getting cocky as they tried to force their advantage home. On 70 minutes some good forward work gave the home side a 4-2 overlap. A pass was tried to loop over the Hawks cover, but Steven was alive to it and intercepted the pass before running 70 metres for the try. With Wight converting the 12 point lead was restored.
The scoring wasn’t over an Heriots took their 5th try of the afternoon in the 77th minute with a Neil Goudie try which went unconverted giving Hawks a 7 point win.

This article was posted on 1-Mar-2014, 20:22 by Hugh Barrow.