BT Premiership

AYR 18

GLASGOW HAWKS 28

by Elena Hogarth

AYR suffered defeat in their first home league game against a Hawks side who had defeated Marr a week earlier.

As defending BT Premiership champions, and having beaten Hawks four times last season, Ayr were clear favourites for this second round clash, but although they had a bright start, they were playing a fruitless game of catch-up for most of the afternoon.

Ayr opened the scores through full-back Grant Anderson’s unconverted try. From then on, Hawks put their foot on the gas, second row Kiran McDonald charging down a kick to score, with burly centre Jack Steele converting, before winger Kyle Rowe added an unconverted try, with Steele kicking a penalty before half-time. Steele kicked two more at the start of the second half, with Ayr fly-half Frazier Climo getting one. The ebullient New Zealander helped create captain Pete McCallum’s rambunctious try and then converted it. That was it for the home side. No more points could be found, despite centres Danny McCluskey and Stafford McDowall being busy in mid-field, and winger Scott Lyle’s hefty boot keeping Ayr out of danger and in Hawks’ half.

The scrum was under pressure at various points during the afternoon, even with the presence of British and Irish Lion Ryan Grant and the second half appearance of Steven Longwell, who only returned on Thursday from three months of playing in Australia.

There was no-one at home for Ayr as McDonald set off at a canter up the pitch and scored under the posts, rather unwisely waving the ball about in celebration before he had even touched it down, much to the consternation of the Hawks fans, who are not used to seeing their team on top at Millbrae, and waiting for an Ayr comeback, which happily for them never materialised. With young fly-half Ross Thompson taking over the kicking duties and easily getting the conversion.

Ayr head coach Calum Forrester was resigned to his team’s fate, but also full of praise for their opponents..

He said afterwards: “Fair play to Hawks. They played us at our own game. We’ll need to have a look at ourselves this week. But that’s the good thing about the league, there’s always an opportunity to do better.”

Another feature of the league is that there are no easy games, and this week’s game doesn’t get much tougher than Melrose, who have marauded their way through their first two matches.

Meanwhile the 2nd XV had a much better afternoon, defeating their Hawks counterparts 41-19, with tries by Ruairidh Sayce, Cameron Reece, Craig Brown, man of the match Michael Badenhorst, Euan Hamilton, Jonathan Agnew (who then dashed across to the 1st XV pitch to make an appearance as a replacement in the second half) and Cameron Taylor. Sam Gray converted one and Sam Graham two.

Millbrae RFC were beaten 10-12 by Lenzie, and Cartha Queens Park were victorious over Ayr Ladies 14-5. The weather put paid to the Ayr-Wellington girls’ fixtures, but the U15s have had a good start to the Mirage Conference, recording wins against Hillhead-Jordanhill and Murrayfield Wanderers, whilst the U18s have one win and one loss. The boys – playing in both the Shogun Conference for club teams and the Barbarian Conference for school teams – have had a mixture of victories and defeats over the past three weeks.