IT wasn’t particularly pretty at rain-lashed and wind-swept Millbrae on Saturday, but it was a hugely compelling contest, with the two top teams in the league fighting tooth and nail to extend their winning streak in this season’s BT Premiership campaign into a sixth week.
In the end, Ayr’s superiority at set-piece allied to an astute tactical game orchestrated by half-backs David Armstrong and Frazier Climo created the platform for a gritty but well-deserved victory.
Melrose arrived in South Ayrshire as marginal favourites, having blazed an early trail in this competition with a series of impressive bonus point victories built upon the bedrock of a dominant pack, and complemented by a free-wheeling rugby philosophy which makes them a try scoring threat from any position on the park – but Ayr matched them in both areas on this occasion.
“I think we played the conditions really well. We had a really good temperament in terms of controlling the set-piece, and for the majority of the game Melrose were pinned back in their own third of the pitch,” said home coach Calum Forrester.
“Melrose defended really well throughout and were really hard to breakdown so that’s something we will need to look at over the next few weeks if the weather is going to turn, but I’m absolutely delighted with how it went overall and it all started from the forwards getting a real confidence boost with how our scrummage went.”
While the conditions ensured that much of this match focused on the battle of the big boys at the pit-face, Melrose did not abandon their adventurous spirit, with flanker Grant Runciman latching onto an Ayr fumble on his own team's line in the seventh minute to launch a scything counter-attack which ended with scrum-half Murdo MacAndrew wriggling over at the other end of the park.
Ayr kept in touch with two Climo penalties, and when they snatched the lead with the only points of the second-half, it was another fine demonstration of how to play rugby in the rain. With Nick Beavon in the sin-bin, the hosts kept their patience for nine minutes with a series of close-range assaults on the Melrose line, before picking exactly the right moment to unleash Cammy Taylor on the right wing with some slick handling.
“The players deserve full credit for running that play because they identified that Melrose had taken the winger off. In those conditions, a lot of guys might have kept the ball tucked up their jumper and kept it tight, but they were willing to have a crack,” said Forrester.
Melrose coach Rob Chrystie was relatively sanguine about the set-back.
“They made less mistakes than us and didn’t give away as many penalties, so they deserved the win – but we’ll learn from it. In the last ten minutes we had three really good opportunities in their 22, but Ayr defended really well and survived it. They took their chances and we didn’t – it’s as simple as that, really. We’ll dust ourselves down and go again,” he said.
Meanwhile, third placed Glasgow Hawks moved to within a point of Melrose with a 19-30 win at Heriot’s; Watsonians kept themselves in touch at the top of the table with a 26-18 win at home to Currie; Hawick picked up their first victory of the season with a 36-26 score-line against Boroughmuir at Mansfield Park; and Stirling County got back to winning ways with a 31-18 success over Gala.
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