Ayr rugby star Frazier Climo bows out of Millbrae

Jan 14 2011 Ayrshire Post (main ed)

AS well as the disappointment of being denied their first rugby fix of 2011 as the weather won again, Ayr fans missed the chance to bid farewell to Frazier Climo, a favourite son at Millbrae over the past couple of seasons.

The announcement was made last week that the Kiwi number 10, whose influence was a massive factor in Ayr becoming Scottish champions in 2008-9 and winning the cup in 2010, was returning to New Zealand (writes RON EVANS).

His involvement at Millbrae this, his third season, began late and did not have the same impact as in the previous two terms due to a niggling hamstring injury as well as the fact that the season became fragmented due to the weather just at the time when he should have been settling back into the side.

Climo has been offered a training contract by Taranaki for the coming season in New Zealand and circumstances are such that it is an opportunity that the player doesn't want to turn down.

It may be that the way Taranaki have gone about their business is considerably more professional than the approach of Scottish rugby.

After Climo was spotted by one of Scotland's current crop of coaches scoring a spectacular try against Edinburgh Accies, ill founded statements backed up by no background research led to rumour and speculation that he could eventually pull on a Scottish international jersey.

The way in which this was handled simply confirms that lessons which should have been learned from previous debacles of which the Brendan Laney affair is the most memorable, had gone unheeded.

This led to a period of uncertainty for the player and when eventually the admission was made that here had been a monumental foul up, disgracefully, it was left to officials at Millbrae to tell the player.

Nevertheless, the fact that Ayr had the most successful two seasons in their history during Climo's tenure in the No10 jersey is no coincidence and his contribution of over 350 points in each of the two full seasons he was at Millbrae is a record unlikely to be surpassed.

Certainly your correspondent, who has seen many talented players turn out for Ayr at stand-off, would say that as an all round footballer, Climo is probably top of the class and his presence will be sorely missed.

"The club wish Frazier every success in his future rugby career" said Director of Rugby Jock Craig. "We are enormously grateful for the contribution he has made to the success of the side over the past two seasons."

Another whose talent will be denied to Ayr in the coming weeks is that of centre Mark Bennett who is now involved in the build up to the Scotland under 20 international season.

We wish the youngster well and I feel that it is no coincidence hat the two players mentioned above, Climo and Bennett, in 2010 scored two of the best tries ever seen at Millbrae. Thanks lads.

Ayr's Premier Cup match against GHA on Saturday was postponed despite the new frost covers being deployed during the week running up to the game.

The covers have been a big investment for the club and I put it to Jock Craig that the club were still to see any benefit from them since both the British and Irish Cup game against Llandovery and the Premier Cup tie against GHA have had to be postponed.

Craig replied: "We have gone down the road of investing in the covers and we have tried our best, with the help of volunteers at the club, to get the games on.

“However, the weather has been brutal and this is the hardest test we could have had with regard to the covers in terms of when we put them down and when we take them off.

“We are relying on volunteers to do this and we don't have a squad standing by to respond to rapid changes in the weather. The covers will protect the ground to temperatures of down to minus five degrees but temperatures have dropped well below that and it has been impossible to predict the depth of the frost in the ground.

“However, the covers are a long term investment and if we beat the weather a couple of times in a season then we will recoup that investment.

“As things are at the moment, we are finding out as we go along how we need to plan the deployment of the covers and it has been a pretty steep learning curve given the extreme weather over the past few weeks but in the end I believe that they will prove to a good investment for the club."

Ayr are off on British and Irish Cup business this weekend when they take on Birmingham Solihull Bees at Damson Park on Sunday.

The Midlands side are bottom of the Championship table with three wins from 16 starts shipping an average of 34 points per game and they come off a New Year’s Day defeat at Esher by 21-13 but picked up a massive morale boosting win by 35-29 against sixth in the table Doncaster.

Esher lost to Melrose last week in the B & I Cup tie played on the undersoil heated pitch at Netherdale but the scalp of the London side at home was Birmingham's only success on their own patch - surprisingly they won at Bristol by 35-33 - until Sunday so Ayr can travel with cautious hope of picking up their first British and Irish Cup points of the season and their first win on the road in the competition. Weather permitting of course!