Glasgow Hawks 8 - 34 Dundee HSFP: Dundee in vanguard of north’s show of strength

Ian Rankin made no attempt to disguise his pleasure after his side had put Hawks to the sword, but he chose to use this result, and those elsewhere, to celebrate the resurgence of North and Midlands rugby.

“We have to be happy with six tries to one and a bonus point, but we can still play so much better than that,” said Dundee’s head coach. “I thought we dominated the game – clinical would be the right word for us. But to have heard that Currie slipped up against Stirling is great for our part of the country. We have ourselves and Stirling and Aberdeen all in the top eight. It just shows there’s life in rugby north of the Forth.”

Having weathered pressure from Hawks in the early exchanges, it was Dundee who kept the scoreboard moving, with first-half tries from Richie McIver, Harry Duthie and James Fleming, the second converted by Cameron Brown.

In reply, Hawks could only manage a penalty from Mikey Martin. Indeed, it was Hawks’ failure to score from good field position on numerous occasions that let them down. Dundee had no such drawbacks, Alan Brown, Tom Seabala and Robbie Lavery all touching down as well. Gavin Strang went over for a consolation try for the Glasgow side. Hawks’ director of rugby Peter Wright was sanguine at the close: “We played well in the first half but our failure to score is typical of a team that has lost confidence.”

Scorers: Glasgow Hawks – Try: Strang. Pen: Martin. Dundee HSFP – Tries: McIver, Duthie, Fleming, A Brown, Seabala, Lavery. Cons: C Brown (2).

Glasgow Hawks: P Jericevich; R Hughes, D McCall, M Martin, K Gossman; D Karaitiana, K Hamilton; P Henderson, E Milligan, G Hunter, R Miller, N Campbell, A Barbieri, S Leckie, G Strang. Subs: S Findlay, C Taylor, R McKay, R Hamilton, G MacDonald.

Dundee HSFP: C Wyper; A McLean, R Laverry, H Duthie, J Fleming; C Brown, A Dymock; N Dymock, S Forrest, A Brown, R Hawkins, A Linton, C Cumming, R McIver, D Levison. Subs: D Russell, G Robertson, A Redmayne, R Pitman, T Seabala.

Referee: C Brett.