The above match was played as a training friendly took place at a storm battered Old Anniesland on Saturday afternoon. With a goal post destroyed in the gale there was no option other than to play the game without kicks at goal.
Despite the weather the pitch was in remarkably good condition under foot but the strong end to end wind was a big advantage to the side playing with it at their backs. Both sides had big squads, Hawks being much bigger than Ayr and the intention was to give as many players game time as possible. The game was played in three sections, two of 30 minutes and one of 20 minutes duration.
The good news for Hawks was that centres Dean Kelbrick and Tom Preece were back in action having missed most of the first half of the season with knee injuries. Hooker Kenny Brown was also a returnee after injury. The only players of note missing were Ross Miller, holiday, Eric Milligan, working and Craig Gossman long term injury.
Quite clearly the returnees are going to make competition for places tight and this was reflected in the quality of Hawks play where the intensity of play and basic skills were of a far higher order than that in the early part of the season.
The first session started with Ayr, wind behind them, using it to keep Hawks penned deep inside their own half and after 10 minutes Hawks were forced to concede a try. This seemed to galvanise Hawks and an unsavoury incident off the ball, that was unpunished, really got them fired up, including one of the biggest punch ups seen for many a day. So much for a friendly this was all out action and after it the game really sparked into life. For the remainder of the session Hawks were well on top but the old problem of breaking down the defence in the red zone persisted.
In the second period Dean Kelbrick, Tom Preece and Chris Hamilton came on as replacements and with the wind behind them Hawks began to look like a half decent side as confidence and optimism surged through the team. Tom Preece finished off a good handling move to score between the posts. Unfortunately a lapse in concentration right at the end of the session allowed Ayr to grab a try and regain the lead.
The final short session in which the Hawks fielded mainly a development XV resulted in two tries to one by Ayr. A number of the fringe players put in sterling performances and were not overawed by their more experienced opponents.
At the end both sets of coaches agreed that it had been a highly useful workout for the second half of the season. From a Hawks perspective it gives much hope that they can retain their Premier 1 status if they can keep free from the injury blight that has affected them this season.

This article was posted on 8-Jan-2012, 14:29 by Hugh Barrow.