Plans Up in the Ayr for Rugby Club

Aug 8 2008

THE best laid plans gang aft pear shaped and that would unfortunately now seem to apply to Ayr Rugby Club’s pre-season warm-up preparations.

It was supposed to start this week with an outing against Cartha Queens Park, another the following week against Whitecraigs then in the penultimate game in the warm-up, Dundee HSFP before heading off to Ireland to play Garryowen.

Dundee have thrown a spanner in those works however by double booking August 16, Ayr have been dropped and have had to hastily re-arrange, juggle and negotiate to get the quality of match they need before the Premier One opener at home to Melrose on August 30.

With most clubs already booked for pre-season, it has not been easy and as coach Kenny Murray admitted: "This is something we could have done without.

"What we plan to do now is try to organise a bounce game, play Cartha on August 16, hopefully at Millbrae, go to Ireland the following week then have a match against Whitecraigs in the week running up to the first league match.

“It’s not what we planned but we will make the most of it and it will still give us a chance to look at our best permutations and see how the squad is shaping up."

Going into the final few weeks before the season kicks off, the coach was hoping to have Grant Anderson and Scott Forrest released from academy training to join the squad so he could start looking at how his backs will line up with the worrying news that Julia Montoro is still recovering from his leg break and the possibility that Cammy Taylor may not be coming back from his spell in Australia.

Murray added: "On the upside, we have got young David Steel on board from Marr and he showed real promise as the Glasgow U18 scrum half last season. He is also a utility player who has been showing up well at training so that is a plus as well has having Frazier Climo joining us from next weekend so that will give us a chance to really get things going.

"We have had some really good sessions with the squad looking fit and positive so apart from the glitch with the warm-up games, things are moving pretty well."