BT Premiership

AYR 48

WATSONIANS 12

by Elena Hogarth

IT wasn’t quite a demolition, but Ayr’s 48-12 win against Watsonians in the final regular round of the BT Premiership sent out a message to their rivals as they head into the league play-offs.

Just a point in the lead and unlikely to hold on to first place as second-placed Melrose have one game still to play, which they are expected to win, Ayr have secured a home semi-final play-off on Saturday. April1.

If Melrose do leap-frog them and win their semi-final, the grand final will be played at the Greenyards, a notoriously difficult place to win anything, let alone the title of league champions. Ayr’s performance on Saturday lets Melrose and possible semi-final opponents Glasgow Hawks know that they are full of fire-power as the season nears the business end.

It didn’t look like that in the opening minutes of the game with Watsonians, however, when visiting winger Keith Young scored a try from an Ayr handling error. Stand-off Ewan Scott converted, but he wasn’t called on again until the second half as the Ayr proceeded to out-muscle the Myreside men.

Energetic young hooker Lewis Anderson broke away from the back of a driving maul to score, before winger Danny McCluskey grabbed his first of two tries. Then scrum-half David Armstrong sold the perfect dummy to scurry over the line, and flanker and man of the match Blair Macpherson got those long legs going to sprint away for the bonus-point fourth try before half-time.

McCluskey opened the second half with another try, propelling himself to the top of Ayr’s try-scoring leader board with ten for the season so far. Watsonians summoned the mental and physical energy to get a second try through replacement Martin Christie, but it went unconverted.

They couldn’t do any more, alas, with Ayr back to flattening them in defence, with stand-off Frazier Climo, centre Archie Russell and winger Craig Gossman putting in some massive hits.

Fresh legs in attack helped the hosts, with Jamie Bova racing away up the touchline. Climo intercepted to get Ayr’s seventh, before Armstrong selflessly gave Bova the ball for the eighth. They looked like they had enough in the tank for a ninth but time ran out.

As satisfying as the win was for the players and fans, Ayr head coach Calum Forrester was his usual measured self in his post-match praise.

“It was good to finished the regular fixtures on a high and we’re now looking forward to the next challenge," he said.

Ayr have a break until Saturday, March 4 when they welcome Jed-Forest in the BT Cup quarter-final.

Ayr 2nd XV also finished on a high, beating their Watsonians counterparts 37-17. The loss by Heriot’s 2nd XV in their final league game meant Ayr ended BT Reserve 1 in second place, their highest placing in a number of years, and something only achieved once before by the club.

Meanwhile it has been a tough season for Ayr’s reserves, with several wins just slipping away from them, not to mention injuries and the usual problem of any 2nd XV - losing your best players to the 1st XV. But the young squad – many of them graduates of the U18s – and their coaches Jim McKay and Gordon Kotze have shown determination and commitment to stick it out.

Ayr-Wellington U18 and U16 boys bounced back from their disappointment at losing their National Youth League Cup finals the previous week by beating Birkmyre-Garnock (59-10) and Glasgow Hawks (22-7) respectively in the West Regional Cup competitions.

Ayr Ladies had a rest weekend but three of their players, Catherine Shennan, Lauren Gunn and Rachael Mulholland, represented Glasgow and the West in their 19-17 win against their east coast rivals at BT Murrayfield.