It was a dream start for Hawks as Logan Jarvie crossed within only two minutes. Some stout defending had seen them win possession near their own 22. Euan Muirhead looked up and saw Ryan Flett in acres of space, the cross-kick was carried into Currie’s half and although Callum Reidy was unable to get on the end of Flett’s pass, the loose ball was scooped up by Jarvie who ran it home.
Hawks’ defence kept Currie at bay for a while, but the penalties in dangerous territory started to rack up before a piece of deception and the perfect pass from Gregor Christie saw Ryan Daley power over the line, with Muirhead clinging on to him.
Hawks got themselves in position to retake the lead when a smart David Barrie kick put Fraser Sayers in all kinds of bother. Hawks won a turnover penalty and in the resulting phases, after the line-out, Scott Robeson saw yellow for interfering with the scrum-half only a few metres from the try-line, only for Hawks to make a hash of the opportunity and concede a penalty of their own.
Hawks’ over-eagerness was spilling into ill-discipline, such as an early shove at the scrum after Brandon Sweet had won the put-in with a pill-spilling hit on Archie Fletcher. They then conceded consecutive penalties to allow Currie to kick right into the corner. Courtney West leapt highest and popped it down for Jacob Ramsay to charge through the Hawks pack.
Further penalties, which had Mark Cairns calling for a yellow card, were conceded by Hawks just before half-time, putting them under further strain, but they managed to hold Currie out despite strong carries by Fletcher and Gregor Scougall.
Relentless rain was making handling tricky, and after an Aidan Orr hit on Sam Cardosi forced a scrum, Hawks won a penalty and went to the corner. A side entry penalty was called, then earlier try-scorer Ramsay prevented Reidy from taking it quickly and not retreating 10 metres, so he became the second Currie Chieftain to have taken an unscheduled breather. Liam Brims knocked over the kick to make the score 10-12.
Brims then nudged another penalty right into the corner, and although the maul didn’t get rolling the ball was moved wide again, where Brims picked out Harvey Preston for the score which put Hawks back in the lead.
With the game having flipped on its axis since half-time, it was Currie’s turn to flip it back and makeSmith’s review that little more negative. Hawks had done well in desperately scrambling back to cover winding runs by Sayers and then Christie, and even after they conceded their first penalty in nearly half an hour of play at a scrum, they were still able to stop the driving maul and make the ball unplayable.
After all that hard defensive work, the sight of the ball being dropped out of the scrum created a collective sigh from the majority in attendance. Another penalty was conceded, this time Currie moved the ball rather than maul it, Christie fed Robeson who put replacement Matthew Bradshaw waltzing over for the winner.
There was still time to play but with the dreich conditions more balls were being spilled. With the clock in the red and the ball near their own try-line, Scott Steele decided to nudge the ball dead rather than risk losing their bonus point.
“We knew that Hawks, after last week [57-21 defeat at Ayr],would have worked really hard on their physicality and defence, and we found it really hard to break them down today, and when they had possession they’ve done pretty well with it for the most,” said Cairns.
“They’ll be disappointed not to come away with the win because they were definitely in it right until the end.”
Teams –
Glasgow Hawks: E Muirhead; R Flett, D Barrie, L Jarvie, J Hastings; L Brims, C Reidy; B Sweet, P Cairncross©, M Morrison, A Orr, M Oliver, Y Shaheen, H Preston, S Hastings. Subs used: T McNeir, F Muir, S Gray, A Brennan, A Rutherford, S Steele, A Greenen.
Currie Chieftains: C Brett; R Daley, C Gattinby, S Robeson, F Sayers; A Harley, G Christie©; T Jeffrey, R Vucago, G Scougall, A Bain, C West, S Cardosi, A Fletcher, J Ramsay. Subs used: C Anderson, C Ramsay, K Borthwick, J Brown, H Chisholm, E Crombie, M Bradshaw.
Referee: David Sutherland
Scorers –
Glasgow Hawks: Tries: Jarvie, Preston; Cons: Brims; Pens: Brims.
Currie Chieftains: Tries: Daley, Ramsay, Bradshaw; Cons: Harley 2.
Scoring sequence (Glasgow Hawks first): 7-0; 7-5; 7-12; 10-12; (h-t) 15-12; 15-19.
Yellow cards –
Currie Chieftains: Robeson, Ramsay
Player-of-the-match: He got his side there in the end by making the right choices in hard conditions, so Gregor Christie takes the prize.
Talking point: Both scrum-halves were among the best players on the park. Christie we already know about, but Hawks seem to have discovered a bit of a gem in Callum Reidy. His exit kicks, in particular, were of the highest standard.