Ayr determined to give double their best shot despite fixture congestion

IF AYR are to win only the third championship and cup double recorded in the Scottish game they will have to do it the hard way with a fixture list that now extends to the end of May.

The Scottish Hydro Premier Cup Final on 24 April was due to mark the end of the domestic rugby season, but the lengthy winter of postponements has created a monster of a season set to test the patience of the most enthusiastic rugby player, coach and supporter.

Ayr, who last year won the Scottish Hydro Premier One title for the first time, still have seven league matches to play this season, as well as the cup final against Melrose.

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They will take on Glasgow Hawks on Friday night and then send the fittest players to Melrose on Saturday for the Borders club's annual sevens tournament. The big top-of-the-table clash with Currie, the current leaders, is now scheduled for 1 May, and should Ayr win that game with a bonus point they could pull themselves level or overtake Currie in the race for the silverware.

However, they will not complete their fixtures until they head to Selkirk on 29 May.

Stewart's Melville, by contrast, have played all of their games, helped by a good-quality pitch at Inverleith, and Dundee HSFP have only one game remaining, but that is against Ayr and so will not be played until 15 May, meaning a seven-week period between their last two games.

Ayr president Billy McHarg said: "That is crazy. We know it's going to be a really big ask to go through the next eight games in eight weeks and win the league and cup, but you only had to look at the faces of our players, coaches and supporters at Millbrae on Saturday when the final whistle blew to see how much reaching the cup final meant.

"This is the first team in Ayr's history to get there and obviously we all want to go on now and win it by beating Melrose, but we want to retain the league title as well.

"The boys started training last June, had our first game in August and we're looking at finishing nearly 12 months later.

"That is just far too long; it's ridiculous. But we have no choice but to get on with it.

"I said at the start of the season I thought this was the best team Ayr had ever had, and my hope now is just that they get something to show for it.

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"We could be in everything and end up with nothing, but we're not thinking like that. We're confident we will rise to this unbelievable challenge and prove what this team is made of."

While the high number of postponements is the main reason for the season's extension, Ayr were among those who pushed for clubs rather than Edinburgh and Glasgow reserve sides to play in the inaugural British and Irish Cup.

That exacerbated the problems for Ayr and Heriot's, the Scottish representatives.

Yet, incredibly, this season has been better than last. The top clubs entered the cup at a later stage this time to ease congestion and recent statistics show that there had been nearly 100 fewer postponements in 2009-10 than in 2008-9.

However, McHarg insisted that with patience across the rugby community wearing perilously thin, changes were now inevitable.

"People are beginning to realise just how bad it is," he added. "Even Ian Barnes, the coach at Edinburgh Accies, didn't realise just how long our season had become until he looked at the fixtures this week, and there is definitely a consensus now that this cannot happen again.

"The British and Irish Cup would have been fine in a season without as much winter disruption, but we're looking now at the clubs who do go into that entering the Scottish Cup even later."

Clubs have agreed changes with Graham Lowe, the SRU's director of performance rugby, for clubs to play each other just once and then split into a top eight that play for the title and a bottom four who join with Premier Two's top four to contest the remaining spots in the top flight in a series of play-offs.

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Meanwhile, as the title chase threatens to run on and on, this season's Premier One relegation could be settled next week, as Edinburgh Accies look to play their final game with Heriot's, now scheduled for cup finals day, next Wednesday or the week after.

An Accies win would consign Watsonians, who now play Melrose on 17 April, to Premier Two.

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