GHA bowed out of their debut appearance at the Melrose Sevens in the first round; following a tough match against city rivals Glasgow Hawks.
Hawks opened the scoring after a couple of minutes with a try from an attacking scrum on the GHA 5 metre line. GHA hit back soon after with one of the tries of the tournament when a well worked set play move from a line out inside their own 22 was worked from left to right and back again and in a sweeping move that was handled by all 7 players and included some great support play was eventually finished by Chris Binnie in the left hand corner. GHA had the opportunity to take the lead but a try from Zach Mercer was called back for a forward pass. In a twist of fate, Hawks then scored up the other end from the ensuing play.
Half-Time: Glasgow Hawks 12 – 5 GHA
Hawks scored first in the second half to increase their advantage however GHA then hit back with a neat finish from Nigel Kelly under the posts to bring the scores back to 17-12 to the Hawks. GHA dominated the closing moments as they pushed for the winning score but were left to rue a couple of golden opportunities missed when the Hawks pounced on a turn over and broke up the field for the winning score.
Full-Time: Glasgow Hawks 24 – 12 GHA
GHA Squad:
1. Nigel Kelly
2. Andrew Boag
3. Chris Binnie
4. Rangi Jericevich
5. James Edgar
6. Zach Mercer
7. Grant Neilson
8. Alan Auld
9. Andrew Goudie
10. Peter Jericevich
As it happened, it wasn’t all bad new for GHA supporters as to of our own, Rory Hughes and James Eddie, lifted the Cup for a second year running in Glasgow Warriors colours.