Hawks’ mission since their creation in 1997 has always been to provide the opportunity for players to achieve their highest ambition in rugby and we believe that that has been achieved in the club’s short life span with 62 players passing through the club to professional rugby, 28 playing for Scotland U20 and 22 Scotland “Club” caps. This, of course, creates its own problems as each new season requires replacement of a number of key players who have moved on to the professional ranks.

It was also Hawks “optimistic” hope that Scottish Rugby would understand the benefit and opportunity of strengthening the Premiership as the support tier for the two professional squads. A Premiership of 8 clubs with effective funding would provide a strong player development coverage throughout the country - and a full fixture list - and X Border games with Welsh/Irish clubs, if available, would then be a bonus rather than an essential to create a viable season.

Scottish Rugby, however, announced that “the Premiership is not fit for purpose” – I wonder how many games the decision makers had seen in order to reach this assessment - and, instead of the more obvious route of making the Premiership fit for purpose, decided to introduce a Super 6 tier of part time professional teams and, in their wisdom, to exclude a Glasgow presence. The jury is still out on this one.
Our President, Kenny Hamilton, is heavily involved in the Premiership forum and other bodies in examining Scottish Rugby’s governance structure and the effectiveness of their management and interest in growing the game in Scotland and we must thank him for the considerable and much needed time and thought he has put into this examination alongside the many roles he undertakes in his Presidential capacity.

Two seasons ago saw Hawks move from a rather uncomfortable existence at Old Anniesland to a new home at Balgray where Dan Wyatt, Rector of Kelvinside Academy, and Donald Wilson, Chairman of Governors, could not have provided a warmer welcome and we thank them most sincerely for that.

On the playing front it’s been a bit of a roller-coaster for Hawks over the past few years and the older supporters of the team can be forgiven for recording a fairly major increase in pace makers, blood pressure pills and alcohol intake as each season reaches the final stages.

Amazingly the calmest man around in the last couple of years seemed to be our Head Coach, Andy Hill, and considerable thanks are due to Andy, his coaching team and his players for achieving essential wins in the crucial games of the season.
The uncertainty for the start of the coming season due to Covid-19 has made preparation an almost impossible task but Andy has worked exceptionally hard at
retaining, increasing and strengthening his squad of players which now includes the reintroduction of a 2nd XV. Whenever the season starts we look forward to it!

It is 23 years since the game became professional and Glasgow Hawks was created and this was followed by a remarkable run as Premiership Champions and Scottish Cup Winners. Perhaps more important we have also achieved our mission during that time of developing players of every standard and realising the ambitions of more than 100 players in reaching professional and representative rugby. This achievement was pointed out to the SRU’s Chief Executive during Super 6 presentations and he responded “We never asked you to do that”. Hawks didn’t need to be asked to do that – we have known what our role is in Scottish rugby since 1997.

Kenny Hamilton President Glasgow Hawks comments on the SRU AGM

'The SRU AGM will take place on 15th August but will be a ‘virtual’ meeting using available technology.

However, consideration of the motion submitted by Kenny Hamilton on behalf of Hawks and supported by Grangemouth and a number of other clubs, as well as the motion submitted by Currie on bylaw changes will be delayed until we can meet in person.

The Hawks motion seeks to create a more open and transparent decision making process with clear lines of accountability within Scottish Rugby.
Kenny explained "There is a growing concern among member clubs about the culture of excessive secrecy within the Council of the Union and the Board of the wholly owned subsidiary, Scottish Rugby Union Limited and the adverse effect on good governance this has had.

The motion represents an opportunity to signal a new beginning, to embrace an important principle of transparency and so to rebuild trust and co-operation.”
The full text of the motion can be found on the SRU website.’
Getting to know your team

In this and further editions we will highlight individual members of the team and the backroom staff starting with 2 of the coaching team, Andy Hill and Viki Penpraze. Hopefully this will help you to identify these individuals when you see them on the field especially if you are a player sponsor.

Andy Hill-Head Coach and Committee Member

Although he was born in Leeds Andy is very much a man of Lanarkshire.
Educated at Dalziel High School, Strathclyde University and the University of The West of Scotland. Now aged 33 and married he is a Physical education teacher. His coaching qualifications are at UKCC Level 3 and he has been involved with the Glasgow and the West Academy, Hawks 2nd XV and now into his second year as Head Coach of the Club.
Before joining Hawks in season 2010/11 he played for Dalziel HSFP and Hamilton Rugby Club before returning to Hamilton. He returned to Hawks in 2015 playing a total of 43 times for the 1st XV. Hilly was a no nonsense No.8 who epitomised hard work, dedication, tenacity and leadership on the pitch and an excellent clubman off the pitch. Sadly a serious back injury terminated his career prematurely.
On retirement he quickly turned to coaching as assistant to Fin Gillies.

The quality of the work that he did in this capacity proved him to be the ideal candidate to replace Fin when he moved on to Heriot’s. His appointment coincided with the commencement of Super6 and he was faced with the loss of 12 key players to clubs in that format. Not daunted he set about replacing them with mainly raw but potentially undeveloped talent. The first few games proved to be difficult as his team adjusted to the increased power and pace of the game at premiership level. The first green shoots became evident at Mansefield Park Hawick with a spirited defensive performance and the first win of the season. Gradually the pack became one of the best performing in the league and the defence was usually solid but narrow defeat after defeat proved to be frustrating. Games that were competitive throughout the match slipped into frustrating defeats but bonus points were being steadily accumulated. In the final game of the season, against Edinburgh Accies Hawks finally showed what they could have been all season with a little bit of luck and the better side of 50/50 decisions.

During this period Andy never lost confidence in his team and he and his fellow coaches ensured that the squad was a good hard working and enthusiastic group.
Andy, in his own word, says that his proudest rugby moment was making his Hawks debut and being able to play alongside his close friends Gary Strain, Steven Finlay all Lanarkshire men.

His hope for Hawks is to provide players with positive experiences that they will remember and make lifelong friends. That epitomises the caring attitude of Andy Hill

Victoria Penpraze
Head of Performance and a Hawks Committee member

Is a key member of Hawks coaching backroom staff as Head of Performance responsible for providing and delivering
The following services;
Fitness screening & monitoring
Mental skills development and support
Monitoring performance
Research and development

Viki was born in Northern Ireland and her home before coming to Glasgow was Islandmagee a small community of around 2600 inhabitants in County Antrim a few miles from Larne and Carrickfergus.

She was educated at Larne Grammar school and the University of Glasgow. She is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Physiology & Sports Science at Glasgow University.

She was introduced to Hawks through current captain Dr Stephen Leckey a number of years ago. As lecturer for his undergraduate degree in Physiology & Sports Science. She supervised his undergraduate research study investigating the effectiveness of particular mental techniques that influence player’s training intensity and effort. This was possible with the support of then head Coach Jamie Dempsey and also Jimmy Sinclair.
The relationship between Physiology & sports science at the University and Hawks has grown and strengthened each year since then. The reason for her continued attachment with Hawks is to provide conditioning, wellbeing and performance to players through applied sports science. Another important reason for her attachment to Hawks is that (in her own words)” is that I really enjoy it. Great players and great people. It’s amazing to be part of a group of players and coaches that love rugby, love competition, work hard and have ambitions. I can’t wait for the season to get underway.

My hope and vision for Hawks in the future is that we continue to be a club where players and staff can develop, thrive and perform. Hopefully we will provide a place for players to enjoy their rugby, achieve their goals and provide a platform for those to move on to the professional game. As Gustav Mahler said “tradition is not the worshiping of ashes, but the passing on of the flame”. My hope, for my part in Hawks is to be part of the passing on of the Hawks flame”’.

Congratulations – Dr. Stephen Leckey
Back row and sometimes 2nd row forward

Stephen has just completed his PhD in Sports Science and Psychology examining Mental Toughness in Scottish Rugby, so he’s now Dr. Leckey.
He had completed his BSc (Hons) in Physiology & Sports Science at University of Glasgow, then he completed an MSc Psychological Studies (also at University of Glasgow) and most recently completed his PhD, again at Uni of Glasgow. A very smart chap!

His PhD examined levels of mental toughness in rugby from elite performance to premiership. He also examined whether certain match behaviours in rugby can be associated with being ‘mentally tough’ and if so, can we then ‘code' for these. I.e. video analysts code for many other aspects of performance, so perhaps they can code for behaviours associated with being mentally tough? From that information Stephen identified, yes we can identify that some players do more of these ‘mentally tough’ behaviours than others and it is related to levels of mental toughness. This led him on to investigate how to develop mental toughness in rugby players. He used techniques associated with psychological flexibility and mindfulness to develop mental toughness in Scottish rugby players.

Stephen and Victoria Penpraze (and 3 other authors) are almost finished writing a book on a related topic- called Flexible Mind.

100 Years Ago by Hugh Barrow
The Past is a foreign country, or is it? The past is a foreign country is an oft quoted phrase but I am beginning to think it is the present that is the foreign country.

As we face the current pandemic in 2020 maybe it’s worth reflecting on the rugby community of 1920, who also battled the fallout of the Spanish Flu epidemic that claimed some 50 million lives.

At the time, Rugby had just come out of the ravages of WW1 and the catastrophic effect that it had on a generation of players and their clubs.

The statistics for our founder clubs Glasgow Accies and GHK and associated schools make stark reading. 480 former Glasgow High School pupils, 327 from Glasgow Academy and 131 from Kelvinside Academy had made the ultimate sacrifice. This sacrifice is remembered nationwide every November and year-round by the War Memorial Trusts established in the aftermath. Hawks enjoy the privilege of playing at Balgray which forms part of one such Trust.

Sport is resilient and the post war period starting in 1919 proved a hugely successful one for our founding clubs and throughout the roaring twenties. The first green shoot of recovery came in the shape of Robert Gallie from Glasgow Accies

Robert Gallie was born in 1893 and played as a Hooker for Glasgow Academy, Fettes College and Glasgow Academicals. He served as a captain in The Yeomanry and was awarded the MC. He also had the honour of playing in Rugby’s first World Cup: The Kings Cup 1919.

Six teams of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, the RAF and the British Army (under the name of the Mother Country) played a round robin with a narrow Australian victory at Bradford preventing an outright New Zealand tournament victory. Matches were played in cities around Britain including in Edinburgh at Inverleith. The showpiece playoff was held at Twickenham on 16 April, but unfortunately the men in black were too much for the home Mother Country team and won 9-3. As a final diplomatic tactic the French allies were invited over to play the winner, but fared no better, and were defeated 20-3 by the New Zealanders. And so a pattern was set for another century of rugby dominance. Gallie played in six matches for the Mother Country.

Bob Gallie was then capped eight times for Scotland and led an array of internationalists from our founding clubs through the inter war years; names like Max Simmers, Jimmy Nelson, John Bannerman, Jimmie Ireland, Laurie Duff, Wilson Shaw and Vivian Weston.

Our founder clubs won the Scottish “Unofficial“ Championship on seven occasions and crowds of up to 10,000 attended the big games at Anniesland against the likes of Heriot’s, with special trains arranged from Edinburgh. In the years following the tragedy of WW1 clubs sometimes amalgamated to kick-start the sport until more players were demobbed and returned to civilian life. This was repeated post WW2 with Kelvinside-West playing at Balgray.

So as Hawks, like other clubs, wait to see how lockdown continues to ease and normal service can return, hopefully we can reflect on how two previous generations of players met this challenge and gave rise to a period of considerable success on the pitch. Post pandemic club rugby will have to recalibrate just like it did 100 years ago but that resetting led to one of the most successful periods for our sport at club level.

Let’s repeat that.

Hawks on Social Media

Hawks make considerable use of social media to communicate with members, players and the general public.
Website
www.glasgowhawks.com

Facebook
Glasgow Hawks general site with currently 5800 followers

Glasgow Hawks Legends
Closed group for those closely associated with club currently 394 members

Twitter
Glasgow Hawks @glasgowhawks1 currently 3878 followers

Instagram
Hawksglasgow currently 732 followers

Comments and Contributions
We will welcome comments, questions, suggestions and articles for future editions.
Please send these to Alasdair Graham by email algrah@aol.com