Colhoun hat-trick seals Ayr win

THERE might on paper have been nothing at stake, but both teams went at this encounter as if it was a title decider, writes Matt Vallance at Millbrae.

What ensued was a game of four quarters, with Ayr controlling three of them, and Aberdeen enjoying a purple patch in the third. Sadly for them, by that time the game was all but over, following a scorching Ayr start which garnered a hat-trick for flanker Rob Colhoun.

All of his tries came from an identical source – stand-off Robbie Fergusson kicking a penalty to the corner, Ayr winning their line-out and Colhoun barrelling over. After leading 3-0 through a fifth-minute Rob Aloe penalty, the visitors were 22-3 in arrears at the break. The deficit grew to 31 points as Richard Dalgleish and Mark Stewart added further tries for Ayr early in the second half, before Aberdeen produced tries from Grant Walker and Steven Aitken. Their hopes were quickly extinguished, however, by a Haydn Wisnewski try for Ayr.

In the final minutes Morgan Ward scored another try for the visitors, before winger Cammy Taylor finished things off with another try for Ayr. Robbie Fergusson could only convert two of Ayr’s eight tries, while Rob Aloe added two conversions to his early penalty goal.