If you had asked the Hawks coaching team before the match what they wanted out of this game they would surely have said a win with a bonus point. At the end their charges had duly delivered in some style with a 6 tries to 1, 45-8 victory. Looking at the raw score could give the impression that this was a romp for Hawks, nothing could be further from the truth. Hamilton clearly had the intention to play a running and handling game to stretch Hawks. They had two excellent centres in Craig Inglis and Scott Murray and a flier in left winger Chris Stannage. They ran the ball from deep at every opportunity and Hawks defence had to be secure as they gave them quite a bit of space. However the ball tended to transfer to the wings rather quickly and there was a lack of penetration. Hawks handling was less secure as they tried to bludgeon their way up the field by using their big forwards Andrea Barbieri, Rory Mckay, Ross Miller, in the second half, and man of the match No. 8 Grant Strang.
The game turned on two purple patches by Hawks, one in each half. In the first half Kerr Gossman showed his class and why he is in the Scotland Sevens squad by stepping past his opposite number for two well taken tries, the second from a delightful pop pass by full back Dylan Karaitiana. In the second half, in the space of little more than 10 minutes the Hawks forwards tore the Hamilton forwards to shreds and Ross Miller, Grant Strang and Andrea Barbieri scored, the Italian player's first since joining the Club. To be fair Hamilton were down to 13 men at this stage because of two yellow cards for killing the ball. Hawks suffered the same fate at the start of the second half when Stephen Leckie was yellow cards for a trip. Hamilton took advantage of this by scoring a well worked try by their left winger Chris Stannage.
Hawks were leading 40-8 and had the bonus point in the locker and the win and may have relaxed a bit because Hamilton came right back into the game with wave after wave of attacks. Many of them stopped with last ditch tackling close to the line but still Hamilton could not score much to the frustration of their large travelling support. Incidentally the second largest crowd of the season. It is amazing what the threat of relegation can do to stir up support.
In the end what often happens in theses circumstances, in the final minute, Hawks secured possession and set off up field. A delightful series of well delivered passes by backs and forwards released replacement Chris Hamilton and he raced over in the right hand corner to the delight of the home support.
This was a highly entertaining game of rugby played in a good spirit and yet again goes to prove how good a game it is to watch at this level.
Hawks have recovered from most of their injury woes with only full back Aubrey Horton and Bart Karalus unavailable. They certainly looked a much better side than in mid season but there are certain to be tough tests ahead. However it is good to be sitting at the top of the table.
Next Saturday Hawks have another interesting game at Old Anniesland when Hillhead/Jordanhill are the visitors for a 2nd round tie in the West Section of the RBS National Cup. The kick off is likely to be at 3pm but check this website later in the week for confirmation.

This article was posted on 15-Jan-2012, 17:09 by Hugh Barrow.