Arnold Clark Men's Premiership: Glasgow Hawks pick-up important home win over Edinburgh Accies

Yesterday at 01:49 PM

Glasgow Hawks 21

Edinburgh Accies 17

IAIN HAY @ Balgray

THERE were ebbs, there was not a huge amount of flow, but at the end of a keenly contested match, it was Glasgow Hawks who edged their way to victory with a decisive score in the last couple of minutes.

"I don't think we played particularly well, I felt like we tried to force far too much today, off of turnover ball and first phase, and we struggled to build any sort of momentum" said a relieved Andy Hill, head coach of the winning team. "Accies have only won a couple of games in the last while so we thought if we get the ball rolling early doors, get in the ascendancy, we could build our confidence up and take it out of them, but obviously that wasn't the case. Accies played really well and put us under pressure for the majority of the game.

"There were two occasions where we simply had to score, and we did, which is obviously pleasing to see. We've probably come out on the right end of narrow games more recently than we have done in the past, but there's been the two occasions where we've been in brilliant positions to win and allowed other sides to come back and draw, so today we've managed to get it done in the last couple of minutes and that shows a good bit of maturity."

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Both sides were hit with early injury blows, Murray Oliver of Hawks – having just returned from a period on the sidelines – twisting his knee in the opening stages, and then Accies' Gavin Welsh seemingly tweaking a hamstring when chasing his own kick ahead.

Welsh was replaced by Robbie Chalmers and having just entered the field he nearly got on the end of a hack ahead, following Patrick Ritchie's delicate grubber, but the ball rolled dead before he could get there.

Hawks took the lead after winning a scrum against the head, former international scrum-half Scott Steele keeping things ticking over nicely until space opened up for Gavin Cruickshanks to float a miss-pass over to Ryan Flett for a simple finish. Surprisingly, it was Harry Provan tasked with the goalkicking, and the young winner finished with three from three.

Lewis Stewart was perhaps fortunate to escape further sanction for needlessly charging in when Accies were already awarded a penalty at the restart, but from then on defences were on top right up until half-time, despite the efforts of the back-threes on both sides. Robbie Kent and Chalmers managed a couple of half-breaks for Accies, and Provan wriggled out of danger for Hawks before setting Euan Muirhead up for a 50-22 only for the line-out to come to nothing.

In the last play of the half, some of Accies’ endeavour finally came to fruition, Jamie Loomes delicately weighted grubber behind the Hawks defensive line was taken down the right-wing by Max Wallace, who found Rory Purvis on his inside shoulder for the try-creating pass. Loomes' conversion attempt cannoned back off the post to leave Hawks in a very narrow 7-5 lead at the break.

Chalmers started the second half looking lively again, but a vital turnover near his own line by Max Crumlish ensured Hawks' lead stayed intact, until Kent produced a moment of real quality, expertly kicking over the head of Provan, regathering without having to break stride, and going over in the corner.

The penalty count was firmly in Accies favour but when replacement Ben Morriss was tackled high in Accies' 22 – an incident which saw Morriss injure his groin and be the third injury replacement of the afternoon – Hawks went to the corner and Fraser Muir drove the maul over the whitewash.

A controversial deliberate knock-on yellow-card for James Couper rocked Hawks back on their heels, and another utilisation of the grubber by Accies – this time from Vincent Hart – allowed Connor Allan to put the visitors in front with less than 10 minutes to play.

A big decision came for Hawks when winning a penalty with five minutes left on the Accies 10 metre line: Use the mighty boot of Cruickshanks to try and level the scores, or boot one in deep the corner?

They chose the latter, and showed great patience, before Chris Elliot, the inside centre wearing ’12’ scored the sort of try more befitting numbers 1 and 2, burrowing his way through a forest of bodies.

With head coach Iain Berthinhuissen taking part in a charity cycle, it was left to arguably Accies star-man despite being a replacement, Robbie Chalmers, to review the game.

"W had a lot of opportunities where we could have scored but that final pass went wayward and it's disappointing that we couldn't finish,” he said.

"There was a few times we could maybe have gone for the posts and kept the scoreboard ticking away, then our own errors let them into our half. We needed to be finishing our own opportunities."

Teams –

Glasgow Hawks: E Muirhead; H Provan, F Callaghan, C Elliot, R Flett; G Cruickshanks, S Steele; I Malaulau, P Cairncross ©, M Goodwin, M Crumlish, M Oliver, A Syme, R Howie, L Stewart. Subs: F Muir, S Halafihi, C Nolan, Y Shaheen, H Lapslie, B Morriss, J Couper

Edinburgh Accies: M Wallace; Gavin Welsh, N Armstong ©, C Allan, R Kent; J Loomes, P Ritchie; C Imrie, F McAslan, C Crookshanks, G Davis, S Whittaker, G Napier, R Purvis, T Drennan. Subs: G Shannon, P Hayes, E McVie, C Bain, B Grainger, B V Hart, R Chalmers

Referee: Ciaran Stark

Scorers –

Glasgow Hawks: Tries: Flett, Muir, ,Elliott; Cons: Provan 3.

Edinburgh Accies: Tries: Purvis, Kent, Allan; Con: Hart.

Scoring Sequence (Glasgow Hawks first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-5 (h-t); 7-10; 12-10; 14-10; 14-15; 14-17; 19-17; 21-17.

Yellow Cards –

Hawks: Couper

Player-of-the-Match: Notable mentions to Scott Steele and Isaiah Malaulau, the latter winning the Hawks' nomination, with his abrasive carrying proving vital to the winning score, but for all-action effort and some crushing hits, Sione Halafihi takes the gong.

Talking Point: At the highest levels of the game, I get annoyed at the referee's eagerness to show yellow cards for ‘deliberate knock-ons’. There's usually some giant with hands like shovels going for it, so I was pleased when Robbie Kent wasn't shown a card for one. Then, James Couper did get a yellow when he was centimetres away from claiming it and running it to the tryline, so there was a lack of consistency there and it wasn't affecting a try-scoring opportunity, making it seem all the more harsh.