{"id":587531,"date":"2025-11-22T21:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/587531\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T21:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T21:51:13","slug":"ayr-maintain-momentum-with-pack-powered-win-at-glasgow-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/587531\/","title":{"rendered":"Ayr maintain momentum with pack-powered win at Glasgow Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem for Phil Smith<\/strong>, his opposite number, is how he can make sure his players take the positives out of the match and recognise that they are not going to meet many teams in Scotland that can match Ayr, particularly up front.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were things we have been trying to work hard on that, against another Premiership team, will work. The key is making sure that we don\u2019t fall below the level of that good stuff just because we\u2019re not facing Ayr,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is to make sure that we play at the highest level we can in every game, because that will put other teams under stress even if it doesn\u2019t necessarily work against Ayr.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried not to give them any set-piece, but it\u2019s difficult because you\u2019re physically challenged in all parts of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defence was brave and committed, but the question is: can they make their shots time after time? It\u2019s tough because they\u2019re bringing through one big guy after the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo now it\u2019s a case of just digging in and having to accept we\u2019re not at that level at the moment. There will be, hopefully, easier games ahead when we have to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, both teams knew each other well, having played just a couple of weeks ago in the Scottish Cup, so Hawks in particular knew exactly what to expect, as was demonstrated early on.<\/p>\n

The earlier Cup match had finished with Ayr scoring from the last play of the match, and though they didn\u2019t quite score with the opening play of this game to keep the momentum going, it was not far off. Early pressure, a half break on the right, a recycle half-a-dozen times, and prop Seth Rae<\/strong> was over for the opening try of the game.<\/p>\n

Hawks, remember, had been as good as Ayr with the ball for large parts of that previous game but suffered at the hands of the visitors\u2019 pack and defence. And there was more of the same when the the home team got their chance in this game, recycling endlessly on the visitors\u2019 line after a tap penalty from scrum-half Calum Reidy<\/strong> took them within inches.<\/p>\n

It produced nothing on the try front, not even a realistic half-chance, despite a succession of further penalties, and eventually they settled for a Gavin Cruikshank<\/strong> penalty \u2013 only to be given a quick lesson in the art of converting pressure into points.<\/p>\n

Ayr fought their way up to the home 22, earned a line-out and the sheer power of the forwards drove the maul over the line, with hooker Alex McGuire<\/strong> the one to get the ball down.<\/p>\n

Another foray into Ayr territory proved fruitless for Hawks before Ayr again broke out and showed they are not just a set of forwards, as the backs manufactured space out left for centre Robbie Orr<\/strong> to race away and put wing Chris Hyde<\/strong> in for the try.<\/p>\n

From Ayr\u2019s point of view, things were soon even better as they drove another line-out maul, and a superb chip over the rush defence was collected by Orr for the fourth try with 10 minutes still left in the first half.<\/p>\n

With full-back Scott Watson<\/strong> converting them all, Ayr were cruising, though the less said about the stalemate at the start of the second half the better, with both sides guilty of simple mistakes as the game started to drift with the result no longer in doubt.<\/p>\n

Ayr eventually broke the deadlock in almost traditional manner, winning a scrum penalty, kicking for the corner and driving the maul over, with lock Tim Brown<\/strong> the one to ground the ball. This time, however, the conversion sailed wide.<\/p>\n

A further try for scrum-half Fergus Johnston<\/strong> eased Ayr even further ahead, despite the best efforts of the resolute home defence. It was enough to round out another routine win for the reigning champions as they march serenely on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Teams\u00a0\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glasgow Hawks:<\/strong> E Muirhead; J Couper, C Waugh, P Kelly (C), J Hastings; G Cruickshank, C Reidy; T Banatvala, T McTeir, B Sweet, M Crumlish, M Oliver, Y Shaheen, A Rutherford, S Hastings. Subs:<\/strong> C Nolan, F Andersonj, A Orr, H Preston, L Brims, A Brydon, L Jarvie.<\/p>\n

Ayr:<\/strong> S Watson; J Craig, J Shedden, R Orr, C Hyde; B Beattie, F Johnston; C Rae, A McGuire, C Henderson, E Bloodworth, R Jackson, S Rae, T Brown, B Macpherson (C). Subs:<\/strong> R Tanner, M Scott, R Sayce, J Drummond, A Stirrat, J Bova, R Sweeney.<\/p>\n

Referee:<\/strong> Calum Lazenby<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scorers \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glasgow Hawks:<\/strong> Pen: Cruikshank<\/p>\n

Ayr:<\/strong> Tries: S Rae, McGuire, Hyde, Orr, Brown, Johnston. Cons: Watson, 5.<\/p>\n

Scoring sequence (Glasgow Hawks first):<\/strong> 0-5; 0-7; 3-7; 3-12; 3-14; 3-19; 3-21; 3-26; 3-28 (h-t) 3-33; 3-38;3-40,<\/p>\n

Player-of-the-Match:<\/strong> The sheer power of the forwards really won this game but they played as a unit and it would be unfair to single out any of them while Robbie Orr,<\/strong> at centre and then full-back, showed the backs were just as effective and he gets the prize.<\/p>\n

Talking Point:<\/strong> The challenge for any team facing Ayr is how to stop them dominating the set-piece. Hawks simply couldn\u2019t afford a handling mistake or to kick the ball out of play, knowing that ever time they did, they were going to have to do something pretty remarkable to get the ball back again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The problem for Phil Smith, his opposite number, is how he can make sure his players take the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[128979,748,85185,918,128980,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-587531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-ayr-rfc","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-divi","11":"tag-glasgow","12":"tag-glasgow-hawks-rfc","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115595567765369160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}