Seven tries, two yellow cards, plenty of talking points - what, apart from another example of the desperately low state of Scottish refereeing, wasn't to like at Millbrae this weekend.

Calum Forrester, the Ayr coach, was certainly happy with his side's performance. "I asked them to respond positively to last week's disappointing defeat at Heriot's and they didn't let me down. I've been expecting that first-half display, in particular, all season," he said.

The result sent the Ayr squad off in celebratory mood to Saturday night's black tie club Oval Ball, then Melrose were left under a black mood. "We never got off the bus and you cannot give a side of Ayr's quality a 27-point start and expect to win," said John Dalziel, the Melrose coach.

"Still, we came back well before half-time, but I felt we had to score first in the second half to have a chance. Instead Ayr got that score and after that it was a case of damage limitation. But, no complaints, we lost to a good side today."

Ayr started impressively. A penalty from Ross Curle, who converted a sublime Dean Kelbrick try before then scoring and converted a try of his own gave them a significant lead inside the opening 10 minutes.

The yellow card picked up by Bruce Colvine did not help the visitors either. Curle added insult to injury with the resultant penalty, before Danny McCluskey sent Callum Templeton galloping 30-metres for a third Ayr try, converted by Curle. That made it 27-0 to the home side.

There was reason to be wary, of course. The visitors were able to turn the screw in the scrums, with George Hunter yellow carded to allow Melrose to make their extra man pay with tries before the break from Nick Beavon, converted by Joe Helps, and George Taylor.

Hunter returned in time to kill off Melrose's recovery with a solo try, however, after Robin McAlpine charged down an attempted clearance. Graham Dodds rallied the visitors briefly with a 54th-minute try but, amid inclement weather, Ayr made fewer mistakes and Curle took his personal haul to 20 points with a penalty goal, the final kick of the game.

Ayr moved into second in the table as a consequence of the result, just the boost they needed prior to Saturday's visit to Gala.

"We played well, our injury list is getting shorter, we are coming into the Autumn international break," added Forrester. "I have to be happy but we know we are in for a searching examination at Netherdale on Saturday and can take nothing for granted."