AYR emerged as convincing winners over west-coast rivals Glasgow Hawks in the BT Premiership on Saturday, chalking up six tries through Archie Russell, David Armstrong, Ross Curle, Pete McCallum, Jamie Bova and Danny McCluskey; against just one late consolation score for the hosts from Kerr Gossman.
This 6-37 defeat extinguished any lingering hope Hawks may have had of securing a home tie in the play-off semi-finals. Regardless of what happens in the final match of the regular season at Currie next week, the Anniesland men will finish up in third place – meaning they will have to visit the team which finishes second.
The short odds are on that meaning another encounter against Ayr – because although the Millbrae outfit are now one point clear of Melrose at the top of the table, the Borderers have a game in hand and will fancy their chances against both Hawick at home next week and Stirling County away on 11th March.
"I thought it was a really disciplined performance, which was excellent to see," said Ayr head coach Calum Forrester. "Throughout the match we showed some real character, especially when we were down to 14 men at the end of the half."
Finlay Gillies' is one of life's optimists and he needed to be after this one. His side has now been on the receiving end of two fairly heavy defeat against Ayr this season, and the Hawks coach will not want these setbacks to become a psychological hurdle for his players given the likelihood of there being a rematch very soon.
"I didn't feel like the score-line really reflected the game. Don't get me wrong, it's disappointing to be on the end of a defeat and we realise its two-nil to Ayr at the moment, but they were just clinical on the day," said Gillies. "I'm actually proud of how the guys battled throughout. Tommy Spinks was an absolute monster for us. We know to beat a team like Ayr we need to be at our best and sadly we just weren't at our best today."
Melrose grounded out a narrow 5-8 victory over Heriot's in awful conditions at Goldenacre. They had the dominant pack but missed the rugby sense of the injured Craig Jackson behind the scrum and trailed 5-3 at the break, despite having played that opening 40 minutes with the strong wind at their backs.
The game swung on the red-carding of Heriot's flanker Michael Maltman, for an alleged punch spotted by officious linesman Stephen Ward. A knuckle may have made contact with Iain Moody's face as Maltman grabbed the Melrose player's collar during a tussle at a ruck – but whether it was enough to justify a decision which was certain to have such a big impact on the game is highly doubtful. A Grant Runciman try ten minutes from time secured the win for Melrose.
At the other end of the table, Hawick hammered another nail in Gala's coffin with a16-6 win at Mansfield Park – but the Greens made life hard for themselves by collecting a couple of needless yellow-cards.
Watsonians booked their place in the top flight for next season with a 15-12 win at home to Stirling County. It is now likely to be between Boroughmuir, Hawick and Stirling in the scrap to avoid second bottom, which would mean a relegation play-off against the runner-up in National One.
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