YOU couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Ayr players as they stood motionless after the final whistle and stared into space. It is going to take a while for them to get over the fact that they have ended up taking nothing from a Premiership campaign which they have dominated.

Just a few yards away, the Heriot’s team were engaged in mass embrace as they celebrated adding the league title to last weekend’s cup success. They might have been slightly surprised, by what was happening if they weren’t so used to overcoming the odds. They finished third in the Premiership table this season, 12 points adrift of Ayr, and twice looked in serious trouble in this match – but it was the Golden- acre men who held their nerve.

“What a game. Forget about us winning, I thought it was just a great advert for the Premiership – it was end-to-end stuff. Both teams were trying to deliver in every aspect of the game. There were mistakes, inevitably, but they contributed to the excitement,” said victorious coach Phil Smith, afterwards.

“We sometimes lose our head a little bit, it’s a cup final and a big crowd, so for the younger lads it’s a new experience they haven’t come across before – but when they realise that all they need to do is stick with what they have been doing because it’s really good then they’ve got the guts to work their way back into it,” he added.

“The great thing about this team is they go and they go and they go again. We have had a lot of big games which have gone well for us in the league and cup in the last month, while Ayr haven’t had that consistency, so perhaps that contributed to it.”

Heriot’s driving maul has become a potent weapon for them. It yielded two tries for them in their cup final success over Melrose last week and three this week. The first of those scores came after just two minutes with Struan Dewar dotting down, but Ayr bounced back with tries for full-back Grant Anderson and skipper Ross Curle.

Tries from Charlie Simpson and Neil Cochrane – the second after another driven line-out – gave Heriot’s the lead at the break, but Ayr dominated the third quarter with scores from Blair Macpherson and Curle (again) giving them a commanding 26-17 lead with just over 10 minutes left.

Heriot’s are proven masters in the art of audacious comebacks and they were once again up to the challenge. Simpson’s second try after good work down the left touchline from Liam Steele got them back within striking distance, and when the visitors got another close-range line-out with just six minutes left on the clock, the writing was on the wall for poor Ayr.

Jack Turley collected in the middle and in a desperate effort to prevent his team from being marched over their own line for a third time, Pete McCallum tried to derail the maul by entering from the side. Referee Graeme Wells was having none of it and awarded a penalty, with the Ayr No 8 also being sent to the sin-bin.

The Millbrae faithful were apoplectic, and their fury increased exponentially when their team were penalised twice in quick succession as they desperately tried to salvage their season – but their protests were in vain. It really was all over, bar the shouting.

Ayr: G Anderson (H McPherson 21); J Bulumakau, R Curle, D McCluskey, C Gossman; F Climo, D Armstrong; G Hunter, J Malcolm, J Sebastian (D Rae 70), R McApline, S Sutherland, B Macpherson (A Dunlop 70), W Bordill, P McCallum.

Heriots: J Semple; C Simpson, L Steele, C Ferguson, J Rae (G Bryce 30); G McNeish, T Wilson (H Fraser 54); M Bouab (M McCallum 25), M Liness (N Cochrane 25), S Cessford, R Nimmo, J Turley, S Dewar, A Henderson (R van Heerden 70), J Hill.

Scorers: Ayr: Try: Anderson, Curle 2, B Macpherson; Con: Climo 3

Heriot’s: Try: Dewar, Simpson 2, Cochrane, Penalty Try; Con: Semple 2.

Referee: G Wells