HARTLEPOOL .....................18
GLASGOW .......................... 40
IF the Glasgow club sides were enthusiastic about securing the services of the two Antipodean imports to the District squad even before they saw the pair in action, then there will be a run on red carpets over the next few days following the debuts of Tommy Hayes and Mike Beckham at Hartlepool on Saturday.
Hayes produced a superb all-round performance at stand-off, while Beckham brought solidity to the Glasgow front row, handled the greasy ball with ease, and had one or two rampaging runs as West Hartlepool were demolished as comprehensively as the scoreline suggests.
Glasgow coach, Kevin Greene, who persuaded Hayes and Beckham to come to Glasgow, was characteristically economic with his praise. ''I'm very happy with the way the two new guys played - considering they've had very little rugby recently.''
Then he added almost ominously: ''They'll get better.''
No less a judge than West's Director of Rugby, former All Black Mike Brewer, said of the newcomers: ''The Cook Island boys look like good signings. Beckham is a solid prop and Hayes controls a game well.''
Hamish Fyfe, the Glasgow manager said: ''It is difficult to quantify how much of a difference the pair made, but they were certainly a big influence.
''Other key players who missed the first game and who were rusty last week were good, and there was also an all-round improvement in ball presentation and retention, and in tackling.''
The manner and margin of victory must have been heartening for the Glasgow squad. By all accounts the performances have improved considerably with each outing, and for spells on Saturday the side displayed a professional purposefulness in everything that was done.
There were frailties, but it would be unfair to dwell on the negative aspects of what was a very encouraging performance.
Leaving the final word to Hayes, he said: ''The game was a good standard. Both sides retained the ball well despite the conditions. It was very slippy underfoot.''
West Hartlepool - Farrell; Cavey, Botham, Connolly, John; Benson, Nu'ualitia; Sparks, Challenor, Hathaway, Webb, Schrader, Hood, Ponton, Hyde. Replacements - Knowles for Benson, Peacock for Challenor, Jones for Cavey (all at half time).
Glasgow - Sangster; Stark, A Bulloch, Jardine, Craig; Hayes, Weston; McIlwham, G Bulloch, Beckham, Afuakwa, Perrett, M Wallace, McLeish, Sinclair. Replacements - Kittle for Beckham (60min), Simmers for Jardine (61), Stott for Weston (64), Ness for McLeish (72), Metcalfe for Craig (72), Jardine for Hayes (75).
Scorers: West Hartlepool - Benson 2 pens, con; Ponton try; Botham try. Glasgow - Hayes 2 tries, 2 cons, 2 pens; Weston try; Craig try; Stark try; McIlwham try.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article