Hawks fly high yet with forward momentum

IT IS a truth universally acknowledged that, in the world of the oval ball, the front five win games. And on a slaister of a day at Old Anniesland, where the Four Horsemen of the Winter Apocalypse in Scotland - frost, rain, sleet and snow - provided that particular backdrop, the Border entourage from the Greenyards found that the Fates had also served to conspire against them.

Not that there was any doubt about the deserved nature of the Hawks' eventual victory. They had after all scored three tries to none in a fraught, heavy-duty game which has extended a life-line in their hopes for the Premiership title. But their decisive tries had only come after Melrose had nudged ahead for the first time in 59 minutes when Gavin Walsh - remember that name? - had draped himself over his Melrose opponents and Paul Rutherford had kicked his third penalty to put his side 9-8 in the lead.

The Hawks riposte had followed as automatically as night the day, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Melrose had listed two captains in the programme, and one of them was Craig Chalmers, whose return to first-team duty had brought assurance but not certainty to his side. Kicking from hand was certainly the order of the day and with the treacherous green surface misleading players and spectators alike mistakes abounded.

The forward contest was intense and committed and at the end of the first quarter the game was tied three points apiece with penalties from the two respective full-backs, Campbell Aitken and Paul Rutherford. By this time three players had left the field with injuries: Ricky Munday damaged a hamstring in pursuit of his own chip ahead, Andy Ness once more suffered ligament damage and David Graham, the Melrose hooker, was also back in the pavilion.

Yet between the 31st and 35th minute the game swung irrevocably the Hawks way. First, after Eugene Martin's booming touch-finder to the corner, the subsequent scrimmage yielded a most fortuitous try for Scot Hutton. The flanker's touch was in dispute and dubious for a couple of reasons, not least because the ball had squirted from the side of the scrummage. But the incident which followed a few minutes later set the try in context. A line-out in the Melrose half led to a flurry of unseen and unseemly activity and to a red card for the Borderers tight-head Craig Smith who, it appeared, had kicked or stamped on the head of the Hawks' Walsh. (One of several Glasgow sheriffs watching the game opined that this was understandable!) At any rate, to lose one front row forward may be regarded as unfortunate; to lose two sounds like carelessness. Indeed the Hawks lead at half-time of 8-3 was surely only a start against 14 men with inevitable points to follow. They assuredly did, but to Melrose, as Rutherford added two more penalties despite the huge workrate of the Glasgow side's tight forwards.

These efforts were complemented and supplemented by the irreplaceable Cammy Little whose skills transmute the base metal of the Hawks pack into something altogether more sophisticated. His urgings and promptings lay behind the marvellous last quarter from his New Zealand half back partner Eugene Martin whose game this season has given cause for concern.

He it was who romped to the posts in 61 minutes after a lovely sequence from Little, Andrew Plastow and Hutton for Aitken to convert. And, as if to rub salt in the wound two minutes later, he exchanged passes down the left wing with Aitken adding another conversion. For the remainder of the game the Hawks forwards drove and rucked round the fringes to their hearts content. It was all over.

Yes, it's the front five who win matches, and lose them.

Glasgow Hawks: C Aitken; K Baillie, R Munday (M Scott 12), D Wilson, G Hawkes; E Martin, C Little; L McIntyre, C Docherty, G Walsh, R McKay, I Smith, S Hutton (captain), A Ness (G Francis 13), A Plastow.

Melrose: P Rutherford (D Bain 67); M Moncrief, S Nichol, P Ono (C MacRae 67), S Lawrie; C Chalmers, R Christie; I Cornwall, D Graham (W Mitchell 16), C Smith, R Brown, S Aitken (captain), C Sein, A Clark, R Griffith.

Glasgow Hawkes 22 Melrose 9

Copyright 1999
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