TIGERS SAVAGE HAWKS Glasgow Tigers 46 Clyde Valley Hawks 8

I don't cover youth games as often as I would like, but whenever I do, the league never ceases to amaze me!

In recent years, we have had matches where a major championship final was halted as the refs had to move their cars to another car park as their original one was going to be locked.

We had a rare international match where the game operated on a running clock as the refs had a college game to do in the afternoon.

And at the weekend another rabbit was pulled out of the hat during the Glasgow Tigers rematch with the Clyde Valley Hawks at Cambuslang Rugby Club, when it was deemed that field goal/extra points kicks were not allowed as there were officially no goal posts.

But for the more keen/sad observers the evidence was that posts were there and not an optical illusion (see above).

Who am I to question the wisdom of the league - Answer?

ALL THE TIME! (lol)

But what else is new.

Despite the mere technicality, there was still a game to be played, in what were the dregs of last week's sunshine.

History has shown previous matches between the Tigers and the Hawks have been tense hard fought affairs. Who was to think that this was going to be any different?

However this was a strong Tigers side having only dropped one of three games so far against a new Clyde Valley side still looking to get their first win of the season and having already been on the receiving end of a 22 point whitewash by the Tigers earlier in the season.

With the rare availability for youth games of an official refereeing crew, this was an early kick off , which did not appear to have an effect on the Tigers roster, but the early signs were not good for the Hawks who turned up for the game with a depleted squad.

And the Tigers made their presence felt right form the kick off when a terrific return from Ruaraidh MacDonald was stopped at the Clyde Valley 28 yard line.

The home side were soon knocking at the door when Scott Watson moved the Tigers to half a yard short of the goal line.

Minutes later Kieran Phillips broke through the gap for the opening touchdown, with MacDonald doing just enough to add the 2 point conversion attempt for an 8-0 lead.

Disaster struck for the Hawks when they fumbled away possession on the first play of the next drive.

And they were promptly punished when quarterback Alan Steen sent a delightfully floated ball to Andrew Burns for another touchdown, with Watson powering through for a second successful conversion attempt.

After Clyde Valley turned over possession again, Glasgow continued to dominate with three touchdowns disallowed on their next drive.

But the home side finally managed to finish the move off, when Steen sent another pass to Scot MacIntosh at the corner of the endzone to match the score in their last encounter. And this was still the first quarter.

Clyde Valley tried to hit back in the dying minutes of the first but a regrouped Tigers defense meant that the drive stalled.

In the second period, the Tigers regained control and went further ahead when Steen scrambled home from 25 yards to make it 28 unanswered points for the Tigers.

And after an uneventful Clyde Valley driver, the Glasgow side struck again on the first play when Steen sent a text book pass to a wide open Macintosh for his second score of the day.

The game was not well beyond Clyde Valley's reach, but any notion of them running up the white flag were soon dismissed at the start of the second half when Bill Winters running almost half the length of the field for a touchdown, with (15 - Name to be confirmed) adding the conversion attempt.

However the Tigers started to wear down a tiring and injury hit Clyde Valley side with Phillips running 20 yards into the endzone to make it a 32 point lead.

And the final straw came on the next Clyde Valley drive when an interception return by Nick Halfpenny made it 46-8 for the home side.

But with the game beyond reach for the injury hit Hawks and player's safety now becoming a major issue, the right decision was made by the Hawks Head Coach to call the game at the end of the third quarter.

Pics and report: Frank McGroarty