‘Hawks Onside’ Edition 3
Welcome to the third edition of ‘Hawks Onside’ for Season 2020-2021’
The decision on the shape of Club rugby in Scotland was announced by the SRU on Friday 4th September. Of course in these uncertain times it may be subject to alteration to take account of the Covid19 issue.
The club’s priority will be the safety of players, officials and supporters and we will try and produce regular updates to keep all informed.
After a detailed consultation with clubs it was agreed that, for this season, the game will be played on a localised basis throughout the country.
The end result is a competition combining the Premiership clubs with the clubs in National 1, split into four conferences, 3 with 6 teams and the North of Scotland group with 4 teams.
This is a sensible decision and, although our preference would have been a Premiership competition, we are fully supportive of this compromise solution.
Hawks have been placed in Conference ‘C’ along with Marr and GHA from the
premiership and from National1, Ayr Club XV, Biggar and Cartha QP. The number of local derbies involved may appeal to supporters of each Club.

As previously announced the new 2nd XV will be placed in a reserve conference with
fixtures that largely mirrors the 1st XV’s opponents. This conference consists of Marr 2nd XV, GHA 2nd XV, Cartha Queens Park 2nd XV,
Ayr Club 2nd XV, Stirling County Club 2nd XV and Allan Glens 2nd XV. This will be a challenging competition playing against established sides who have been playing together for a number of years. With a blend of older players and a sizable number of school leavers it should be an excellent learning experience for all.
The scheduled starting date for commencement of rugby is 31st October but this is subject to approval from the Scottish Government so all fingers need to be crossed until then. We are fortunate that our home ground at Balgray is spacious and has an excellent stand and we are hopeful that a decent sized crowd could be accommodated with appropriate social distancing. We will continue to take advice around these issues and build into our planning.
The Scottish Government recently announced that adult sport should be able to gradually move from phase 3 to phase 4 of the lockdown restrictions over the next 6 weeks with a target date for the first friendly/trial match likely to be week commencing Monday 19th October.
The fixture list was announced this week and this can be found in the second attachment. The opening game is against Marr at Fullerton Park in Troon.

This is a challenging start as, when the league stopped due to the Coronavirus, Marr were leading the table with one game left to play. Hawks played them twice last season losing by a single point at Balgray and by two points on the artificial pitch in Troon and were competitive in both games.

Hawks News
The news from the Hawks camp continues to be encouraging. Training at our new base at Lochinch has been progressing well with good attendances and the players enjoying being in the open air in the company of their team mates.
We are confident that Kelvinside Hawks, our 2nd XV will be competitive at a high standard and be an excellent springboard for young players with ambitions to play at a higher level.
Any player thinking of developing his game under the guidance of a strong coaching team should contact the Club (details on the website), even if it is only a taster season to see if it is enjoyable.
Over the next few months this publication will feature a series of articles recording the clubs or geographical areas from where our players have arrived. These will include; The Irish Connection, boys from the tail of the bank, the Steelmen of Lanarkshire and our overseas players past and present.

Connections - Stewarts’ Melville and Hawks
Hugh Barrow
Stewart’s Melville and Inverleith have long served Scottish Rugby well, from being the International ground in the days that predated Murrayfield to producing so many great players like Grant Weatherstone, the Brewster’s, the Calder’s, Dougie Morgan, Fred McLeod, Graham Burns, Graeme Shiel, Scott Riddell, Ross Rennie, John Douglas, Sandy Hinshelwood and Ritchie Vernon to name but a few.
In more recent times during the lifetime of Glasgow Hawks, we as a club have benefited from many who learned their skills and played along Ferry Rd.
It started at the Millennium when a young Robert Niven appeared and made the Scottish Under 19 side for the Fira World Cup which unfortunately clashed with Hawks appearance in the 2000 Cup Final against Boroughmuir at Murrayfield This led to Coach Bill MacDonald having to negotiate with SRU to allow him to fly home early from Lyon. There was no happy ending, although Robert got back in time to play as Hawks were well beaten by a good Boroughmuir team led by Calvin Howarth and coached by one Sean Lineen.
In the early 2000s two players who were to make a massive contribution to Hawks over many seasons had also been playing for Stewarts Melville namely Richard Maxton and Ally Maclay.
In recent seasons this connection was renewed with the likes of Ross Thompson who gained a Scottish Under 20 cap, Cammy Symes and Nathan Moffat.

This link is further strengthened this upcoming season with the arrival of Ross Thompson’s young brother Jamie. The Thompson family have a very impressive sporting pedigree embracing not only rugby but also cricket with Grandfather Eric Thompson and badminton cousin Kirsty Gilmour.
Jamie is joined by another former Stew/Mel graduate who also boasts an impressive rugby pedigree Jacob Lineen whose lineage includes a Scottish capped father Sean and an All Black grandfather Terry

‘Oh The Joys of Children’s Rugby’
One of the regular Hawks supporters and reader of ‘Hawks Onside’ sent me this story
about macho Australian Rugby
“My daughter lives in Adelaide. She has 2 boys who play mini rugby at their local club, who have an active junior section.
The rivals from across town are an arrogant, well-funded, superior private club. This other club have a women’s team which last year won their Premiership. They asked but were refused permission to have a celebratory dinner in the clubhouse. Not a suitable venue for a women’s event.
Upshot is that the women’s team left en masse and joined my daughter’s club. They took their kids with them to the mini rugby and I think some husbands too - “why are you playing for a team who treats your wife like this?”
Last weekend was the first match between the clubs since the fallout – an away game for our teams. The former ladies captain now coaches the team my older grandson plays for. She was a bit keen they might win. They did 39-10. The host club are very proud of their set up including electronic scoreboards for each pitch. Our folks took some pleasure in the scoreboard being switched off at half time to avoid the heavy defeat being obviously public.
Nice people. Bad decision about the dinner.”
My grandson, 11 years old at the time, came home from a match one Saturday and his Dad asked him how he had got on. "Absolutely humped" he replied. "What happened" his Dad enquired. He reported that the opposition were huge; many of their Under 12 team even had small black moustaches. At half time his coach called the team over and said "5 tries to 0 down, how are we going to win in the second half
boys" The little stand off responded “ reach puberty sir".
His coach said “good answer lad but it's not going to happen in the next 30 minutes". ‘Oh the joys of junior rugby’,

Your Views
To make the ‘Hawks Onside’ more interesting you are being invited to express your opinion on how the future of Scottish Rugby should look in the decade to come. As editor of this publication I am taking the liberty of expressing my own views first and hope that you will comment, agree or disagree. This way I hope that, you the people who have the best interest of the game at heart, will get a chance to offer your
opinion.
Starting with the Professional game:
A third professional team would be a great advantage. The best suggestion I have
heard is to bring London Scottish into the Pro 14/16.
Malcolm Offord President of the Club and a member of the Scottish Rugby Union Board set this out in detail in an article that appeared in the ‘Offsideline’ a few weeks ago (well worth reading). He argued that going back to a team of Scottish qualified players would be highly attractive to the large population of Scots living in and around the Capital. Matches against the leading Welsh, Irish Provinces and possibility South African teams would be attractive to their ex pat communities and he anticipated
crowds of 20,000.
I have to express a little personal bias here as I played at Scottish for a short time in
the 1960’s
Semi Professional Structure
The ill conceived Super 6 needs to expand to a Super 8 and be more geographically
inclusive.
2 Border teams possibly Melrose and Hawick
2 Edinburgh teams, one North of the city and the other South of the city.
2 West teams one covering Ayrshire the other Glasgow
1 Midlands team
1 North team possibly based in Aberdeen but including the Highland Region
The requirements for inclusion floodlit pitch, stand, ground capacity minimum 2000
and an all weather surface for matches or at least training
Academies
The current number of 4 to be expanded to 8 and each Academy attached to a Super 8 team. The players to train with the Super 8 side plus additional skills sessions possibly with the Professional teams. Stage 2 & 3 players would join this Academy plus
players over the age of 18 who may be late developers.
8 Junior Academies, geographically spread to include players from 14 years of age to
18. Each attached to a Premiership Club where possible (see below).
Training sessions to take place mid week to allow participants to play for their school
or club at the weekend.
Suggested locations.
West: Dumfries, Marr, GHA, Cumbernauld.
South: Gala, Selkirk, Kelso, Jedburgh.
North: Inverness, Aberdeen
Midlands: Dundee, Perth.
Edinburgh: Currie, Musselburgh, North Berwick, Central Edinburgh.
Premiership
10 teams not included in Super 8, selected on merit
I believe that such a structure would attract commercial support from local companies
provided that the money was being devoted to the local project
Now let me have your views!

Cammy’s Little Column
In the last edition we promised you a report of a player’s comments on Hawks first
season 1997

(Comment. At that time Cammy regularly produced articles for the newsletter. Unfortunately the first few paragraphs of this article are missing from the archive and
it starts part way though his comments on the game against Toulouse.)
‘With music to make the atmosphere really special and the Frenchmen anticipating a really easy ride we went out with an attitude of inner confidence and proved to ourselves that we were really not a bad team. That was a night that many players will always remember, and not experience ever again. I think it also pulled in a number of
supporters who, despite the rain, enjoyed the atmosphere and will come again.
After Toulouse came another stern test as we travelled to Jed in the Cup to face our first Premiership opponents. Again we were quite nervous before this game as the
pundits hoped to dismiss us as 2nd Division wonders (in true Glasgow fashion).
This was one of the highlights of the season as we took a Jed side, who are always formidable at home, to the cleaners scoring 67 points in the process. Great tries by Ally Common and Glenn Metcalfe come to mind as our first appearance on rugby
Special got us noticed.
A couple of weeks later we were back down at Gala where another 67 points sealed the 2nd Division title. Beating Kelso two weeks later, despite not playing well, secured our reputation in the Borders as ‘The Team Killing Scottish Rugby With Entertainment’. Having said that, Jed did write a very gracious letter complimenting us on our style of
play in the Cup match.
Having secured the league title our attention turned to the Quarter Final of the Cup tie against Watsonians at Myreside. One of the biggest factors in the win that day was the noisy support of the Hawks crowd at Myreside As in the Toulouse game the lift that a good support gives a team is immeasurable, and I hope that Hawks will continue
to attract support with their style of play and an entertaining clubhouse atmosphere.
Last weeks semi final against Boroughmuir, at a new Anniesland looking as good as any ground in the country, was a must win affair. The knowledge that the season would be virtually over with no visit to Murrayfield, was a great incentive and as a result we booked our place in the final against Kelso on May 9th. A Kelso side that knows us well and is desperate to win will be a real challenge for us. We certainly can’t wait to get out there, especially as it will be the last time playing together as this Hawks
team
The contracting of players to the Super Districts (sic) we will lose 8 colleagues and we
wish them well for the next stage of their rugby careers.

However the good news is that, next year, we can rebuild the team and keep it throughout the season. I believe that is what people want to see from a team that
they can identify with.
The future of the Scottish Domestic rugby scene is by no means settled and we will continue to be affected as the English struggle to put their house in order and achieve a workable agenda between the Clubs and the RFU. In the meantime the players at the Hawks will strive to make us the best club side in Scotland and see what happens
next.
All the players have enjoyed themselves enormously this season. The atmosphere in the dressing room has been great fun and it is a shame that it may leave with some of the characters next year. Many of us will be back and I have no doubt the atmosphere
will return as well.
It’s a pity that we have to write about history at this time instead of current performances and future plans but we will just have to be patient and keep our fingers crossed that rugby will be back again soon. The danger for the game is that young
players will get fed up waiting and turn to other pursuits and be lost to the game.

Finally
Thank you.
The Club wishes to take this opportunity to thank members who have generously provided financial support during the period of lock down and the re-start of training. This has enabled us to cover the upfront costs of training, Covid 19 training and
precautions and essential equipment for the start of play.
We are ready to go and looking forward to meeting you all again.
Alasdair Graham
Editor- Hawks Onside
Glasgow Hawks RFC