BT Premiership

HAWICK 10

AYR 26

by Elena Hogarth

AYR finally got their league campaign wrapped up with a 26-10 win against Hawick in the BT Premiership, but it came at a cost.

The match was really just a formality as the visitors were already guaranteed to finish the season at the top of the table and Hawick knew they would miss out on a spot in the top four and wouldn’t qualify for the play-off semi-finals.

Throw in the awful condition of the pitch at Mansfield Park and nobody was expecting a good game.

Ayr did score four tries to the home team’s one, but it wasn’t pretty.

It was flanker Will Bordill, so often doing the donkey work but not getting a lot of the glory, who opened the scores for the visitors, trundling over from a line-out drive. Ross Curle, back in the starting XV after a cameo from the bench the week before, converted, his first of three.

Hawick replied with a penalty by Lee Armstrong before he converted Rory Hutton’s try, which he managed to score by sprinting through the mud, kicking up clumps of turf as he did so.

Curle fought his way over the soft ground to score a very similar try for Ayr before half-time.

Number eight Pete McCallum and scrum-half Ali Price were the try-scorers in the second-half to seal what looked like a good win on paper, but Ayr will be frustrated with the last 40 minutes.

Not only were there too many handling errors (from Hawick too) but there were some notable losses in personnel. Prop Javan Sebastian, only just back from a long-term ankle injury, was concussed and Andrew Dunlop - covering the second row for Scott Sutherland - had to be replaced with a bash to the face.

It was those ‘bashes’ that marred the game. It was a needlessly bad-tempered encounter, with scraps and scuffles breaking out frequently. Ayr winger Haddon McPherson was ordered from the pitch permanently after throwing a punch.

Ayr still managed to dominate whilst a man down and Hawick never breached the rock solid defence.

David Armstrong, playing at stand-off in the absence of Frazier Climo, and winger Craig Gossman, the two slightest men on the pitch, put in some big hits.

The visitors’ line-out was something to be pleased about too, hooker David Young on accurate form with his throws and second row Rob McAlpine soaring in the air. There was encouraging play from Ayr’s young forwards Lee Scott, Craig Stevenson and Brian Kelly on his debut.

!It was important for us to get the win to keep our good run going,’" said Ayr head coach Calum Forrester. "But I just hope it wasn’t an expensive game in terms of who we lost."

There’s a break this coming Saturday before the club gear up for their semi-finals weekend, when Ayr face Melrose in the BT Cup and Millbrae RFC play Grangemouth Stags in the BT Bowl on the Saturday before Ayr Ladies take on the mighty Hillhead/Jordanhill Ladies in the Sarah Beaney Cup on the Sunday.

Millbrae RFC beat Loch Lomond 24-17 in BT West Division Three and are now just three points behind league leaders Strathaven with six fixtures to go.