Ayr Rugby Club set for Currie double header

Mar 20 2009 by Ron Evans

THE last champagne cork has been popped, the last celebratory dram drunk, the hangovers dealt with (painfully!) and all the congratulatory texts and e-mails read.

So now it’s back to auld claes and purridge as the rest of the season beckons for the Scottish champions.

Well, perhaps not quite as prosaic as that because there is another chance for Ayr to add more silverware to the Scottish Hydro Electric Premier One title, a chance which continues this Saturday.

The re-scheduled league match at Currie is set to be a double header since the two clubs have been drawn against each other in the sixth round of the SHE National Cup and the result will count both in the league as well as deciding who goes forward to the quarter-finals.

The winners of the tie at Malleny Park will have the difficult task of going to the Greenyards on April 18 to face Melrose provided the borderers come out on top at Rubislaw against Aberdeen Grammar on April 4 in their sixth round tie.

Your correspondent's prediction was that if Ayr and Melrose did avoid each other up to the final, then they would face each other at Murrayfield on Sunday May 10 so if Ayr do prevail on Saturday, the winners at Melrose could be favourites to go on to win the cup.

Whoever does come out on top in that battle will have a home tie in the semi-final against Haddington, West of Scotland, Dundee HSFP or Cartha QPk.

Without being unfair to the men from Dumbreck, it is unlikely that Cartha will reach the semis since to do so they would first have to beat Premier Two champions Dundee then the winners of Haddington v West.

But if they did make it, that would confirm the romance of the cup if the team coming to Millbrae was the one where Kenny Murray cut his teeth as a coach and indeed took to the cup semi-finals three years ago where they lost only in the eighth minute of injury time to Watsonians at Myreside, a result which still rankles with the Ayr coach.

The team at Currie on Saturday will see the six Ayr players who acquitted themselves so well in the Scotland Club international side against Ireland at Myreside last Friday night, when they won 31-18, coming up against the man who coached them to that victory, Currie's Ally Donaldson.

Damien Kelly, Pat MacArthur, Scott Sutherland and AJ McFarlane all started and Gordon Reid and Andy Dunlop came off the bench in what was a great night for the club game in Scotland and although Boroughmuir's Angus Martyn was man of the match, McFarlane was not far behind him.

He and Kelly set up the try for Martyn which put the result beyond doubt, Sutherland was immense at the line-out and MacArthur showed why he could well be full time in the pro ranks next season.

Reid and Dunlop came on when the Irish were still in the game and played a big part in the ultimate victory and it is testament to the influence Ayr have had in Premier One that they were represented by far the biggest contingent in the squad.

Largely unsung over the past few weeks, the Millbrae XV travelled to Moffat on Saturday and came away with a 13-13 draw, the tries coming from Paul James and Stewart Louden with Andy Houston landing a penalty.

The result keeps the side, a mix of vast experience and emerging youth, at the top of West Division Two. Millbrae have 64 points from 16 games, Paisley lie second with 53 from 14 and in third place Carrick have 47 from 13.

It would be splendid to see the two Ayrshire clubs promoted, confirming yet again that local rugby is becoming a real force.