Ayr beat Selkirk to go top of Premier One

Oct 1 2010 Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AYR roared back from 9-0 down after 10 minutes to crush Selkirk and reclaim top spot in Premier One.

And they did it with largely a home grown squad.

Selkirk’s bus might have cut it fine getting to Millbrae but there was nothing tardy about the way they set about Ayr in a clash which marked the half way point in the first set of 11 games before the league splits.

In their face, harassing and sniping, they forced the home side into errors, three resulting in penalties which David Cassidy banged over from progressively difficult distances, the first from 25 metres, then from the 10 metre line and the third from a bit further away than that.

It all stopped there for Selkirk though as Ayr suddenly woke up, slotted a Mark Bennett penalty then got in a massive driving maul and asserted themselves in a way Selkirk had little way of dealing with for the rest of the game.

A series of scrums on the Selkirk line then an Ayr line-out resulted in Jonno Crossan driving over from the maul. Ayr were one point adrift after quarter of an hour and eight minutes later, centre Richard McCallum started a move inside his own twenty two, great handling took play to the Selkirk red zone and Bennett offloaded to McCallum to finish the job he had started to take Ayr into the lead

Andrew Renwick, Neil Darling and Simon Willett all got a bit of mometum into the Selkirk game but it was spasmodic and when Ayr struck again on the half hour, it was almost over.

Try number three came from a line out steal by Andy Dunlop, Crossan carried it on and Bennett was again the provider for Robbie Fergusson to go in for his first try for Ayr.

Fergusson was the creator a few minutes later when he intercepted, broke, switched to McCallum who returned the earlier compliment and put Bennett in for the bonus point try with three minutes to go to the break

At 25-9 down, it was now or never for Selkirk and they came out all guns blazing and when Darren Clapperton sliced through the Ayr defence for the try, a glimmer of hope appeared.

But that was soon extinguished when Keith Conor was binned, Ayr powered a scrum and Glen Tippett was on AJ MacFarlane's elbow to muscle over.

Selkirk stood big then for 20 minutes, putting in several try saving tackles until eventually after 70 minutes the dam burst.

Scott Nimmo and Dean Stewart set up the field position, McCallum broke the defence and his superb offload again put Bennett over this time for his hat-trick.

With three minutes to go, a rampant Ayr back division again mesmerised the Selkirk defence for Jamie Hunter to score in his final appearance for the Millbrae side before moving to London to pursue his career.

The win takes Ayr back top of Premier One, Hawks and Boroughmuir, both having lost but there was something equally significant about it.

There was a point in the second half when there was only one overseas player, Dean Stewart on the field for Ayr, a fact which is a serious slap in the face for those who still sneeringly refer to them as having a 'Foreign Legion' in their ranks.

The emergence of talents like Mark Bennett and Robbie Fergusson alongside Richard McCallum with his cousin Peter who came on at flanker for 20 minutes showed just how the local young talent is beginning to flourish.

"This is the culmination of a lot of work with the youngsters at Millbrae over a long period of time," said Director of Rugby Jock Craig. “It must have given huge satisfaction to the youth coaches to see the talent they have nurtured coming through to play at thed top level."

Not only did they play in a Premier One match but particularly Bennett and Fergusson showed exceptional skill and maturity, Bennett claiming the man of the match award, surely a record for a 17-year-old.

With the likes of Cammy Taylor, Andy Wilson and Mark Stewart in the backs and Damien Kelly, Nick Cox, Stephen Adair, Rob Colhoun and Paul Burke among the forwards sidelined with injury, this made the performance against Selkirk, at times in the second half a spectacle which drew heaps of praise from as astute a judge as John Rutherford, all the more meaningful.

Ayr travel to Meggetland to take on Boroughmuir on Saturday to face a side smarting from the reverse at Currie but with the young guns challenging for a place, there is no shortage of competition.

Team: Grant Anderson; Robbie Fergusson, Mark Bennett, Richard McCallum, Steven Manning; Ross Curle, AJ MacFarlane; Gordon Reid, Stewart Fenwick, Andy Kelly, Dean Stewart, Scott Nimmo, Jonno Crossan, Andy Dunlop, Glen Tippett. Subs: Jenz Robinson, Julian Rae, Peter McCallum, Johnny McClung, Jamie Hunter.

Ayr 2nd XV travelled to Cleland and came back with a bonus point and a48-7 win which keeps them top of National Reserve League Division Two, three points ahead of Biggar who have a game in hand.

Millbrae crashed 60-24 to Strathaven and languish at the bottom of West Regional Division Two.