Shirts torn, tempers frayed as Hawks savage Melrose

Glasgow Hawkes 34 Melrose 5 Four tries were scored by Hawks in a game that felt almost like one-way traffic against one of the proudest teams in Scotland. This was more of a rout than the scoreline suggests.

Neil McKenzie in the back row, Kenny Sinclair at scrum half, Tom Philip in the centre, and Cammy Little at full back were all absolutely outstanding - aided and abetted by a bunch of young guns who enjoyed contact.

Well, where do you start on this one?

For some strange reason, Melrose played without fire. They laboured their clear-outs in the forwards, and it was hard to spot the two former internationalists in their back division in the form of Craig Joiner and Graham Shiel.

Yes, they were penalised a lot and if I had been a Melrose fan I would have been aggrieved - but they do have a few blokes in their side who infringe.

As the game wore on, and it became plain they weren't going to win, things got "punchy" - although I fancied the Hawks if it came to a dust-up, frankly.

Perhaps therein lay the truth. When it came down to it, the Hawks players tackled harder then Melrose. They had key men who could take the ball up a yard or two.

That old cliche of a blend of young bucks and seasoned campaigners was there in abundance. It really should have been more.

"We have said that we've only lost one game this season, the others we've beaten ourselves," said the Hawks' Tom Philip, whom Melrose failed to impress.

His sentiments were echoed by Scott Hutton. "It just wasn't like playing the old Melrose," he said. "We used to hate playing them, but their hardness wasn't there."

As for Melrose's Bruce Ruthven, a decent guy who scored his side's only try, "I don't know what's going wrong," he said. "We've worked really hard in training and we'll just have to work harder."

The match burst into life as Stephen Duffy, the Hawks young stand off from Ardrossan, made a break clean through the opposing defence. As the game progressed, the sneaky feeling arrived that if Duffy can make his kicking as good as his running then the lad has a real future if he wants it.

Hawks were playing left to right. Cammy Little slotted a penalty in the sensible option, and although Melrose defended manfully, you felt the pressure would tell.

Successive Hawks drives came close. Then, Ian Leighton - revelling playing against his former teammates - made a huge run which was the key move. As the ball squirted left, it was powerful Philip in the centre who rode the tackles to score near the posts.

Just prior to that, we had been treated to the sight of Hawks' right winger, James Adams, taking a real crack to his head - which left him staggering and stumbling with a strange smile playing across his lips. Just where he thought he was nobody knows, but he might well have said: "I could only be playing a team from the Borders."

The lectures he gives at Auchincruive should be fascinating this coming week.

Melrose were fired up in response. They had Tom Weir, Ross Brown, and the ever-present Alec Clark to thank for much of their best efforts, as well as the abrasive scrum half, Jamie Blackwood. They romped up the other end in a rare foray. A delicate transfer of the ball put Bruce Ruthven over on the left wing.

Just a minute later, with Euan Murray ever-driving, and crushing tackles from the Hawks keeping Melrose at bay, the ball found its way to Little on the right.

A delicate, floated pass out to the pounding Ricky Munday made the score.

A little bit of a punch-up followed. Chris Docherty, surprisingly, enjoyed himself hugely in the role of "enforcer" by squaring up, principally, to Ian Cornwall and then to Neil McKenzie - who was about to discover the value of a good tailor.

Lying on the wrong side, his rugby jersey was ripped right down the back, necessitating future repairs. Meanwhile, Little remained big and stepped up to slot the kick over.

It was a mind-boggling 23 points to five to the Hawks at half time.

Melrose, who had tried the straight route before half time, came out and attacked wide in the second period. Tam Weir and Alec Clark found themselves on the ball, Craig Joiner had two dangerous runs, Graham Shiel found more space and Callum MacCrae had a dancing run or two.

Up front, Melrose had shortened lineouts with, whisper it, no lifting. But it all fell on crash tackling defence. Any loose kicks were gobbled up by Little, and Kenny Sinclair ran the show.

Duffy put a testing chip through as he broke to the right, Sinclair hacked on, and Duffy followed up to claim his try as things got desperate for Melrose. As the game closed, Little slotted two penalties, and we watched the odd dust-up again.

Hawks have a good group of young players. As for Melrose, on this evidence, they are a team who are suddenly playing without confidence and without leadership.

Glasgow Hawks Little; Adams (Munday 34mins), Leighton (McNeil 73 mins), Philip, Hawkes, Duffy, Sinclair; McIntyre, Docherty, Murray (Coulson 80mins), Smith (Hutton 24 mins), McKay, Sitch, Maxton, McKenzie.

Melrose S Ruthven; Joiner, R Brown (Caldwell 61mins), Shiel, B Ruthven; C MacRae, Blackwood (Exner 72 mins), Cornwall, McCall (Seine 24mins), Fraser, Henderson, Aitken (K Brown 48), Dalziel, Weir, Clark.

Copyright 2001
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