Currie and Ayr face crunch matches on home soil in bid to catch top two

THE two teams that have dominated the top flight of Scottish club rugby in recent seasons have crunch matches this lunchtime.

Last year's champions Currie host top-of-the-table Melrose knowing that a bonus-point victory will close the gap between the two sides to five points, while a reverse of that score will leave them 15 points adrift with only five games to go.

Essentially, that would leave the Malleny Park praying for some sort of implosion by their Border rivals during the championship run-in - which is not a likely prospect given that Melrose are on an eight-match winning streak stretching back to mid- September and have three home games still to play.

Meanwhile, Ayr, the champions of 2009, welcome second-placed Glasgow Hawks to Millbrae, as they look to get their season back on track after a surprise defeat at home to Dundee HSFP last weekend. Ayr are currently five points behind Hawks and ten behind Melrose, meaning that the situation is less critical for Kenny Murray's men - but only marginally so.

Hawks have been in a rich vein of form in recent weeks, winning their past three matches by an aggregate margin of 148 points. But head coach Peter Wright knows that all that promise will count for nothing if they don't front up during the next fortnight, during which time they will take on their three main rivals for the title.

"This is the start of three massive weeks for Glasgow Hawks and what could be harder than a game against our west coast rivals Ayr, who will be desperate to get their league campaign on the right track after a disappointing defeat last weekend. We know that this will be one of our hardest matches of the season but are confident we can get something from it if all the players are at the top of their game," he said.

While none of these top four sides will want to think about anything other than the championship race at the moment, at the back of their minds they will be conscious of the fact that qualification for the British and Irish Cup would be a pretty decent consolation prize if they only manage to make it into the top three.

With that in mind, they will be casting a few nervous glances backwards towards Heriot's and Dundee HSFP during the weeks ahead. Heriot's are currently six points shy of a top-three place while Dundee, who have blown hot and cold all season, are one point worse off.

Dundee welcome Boroughmuir to Mayfield for the only Premier A game to kick-off at 1pm today, while Heriot's have found a rather more unusual solution to the problem of not getting access to school playing fields until after midday. They have decamped to Raeburn Place, home of local rivals Edinburgh Academicals, for their match against Hawick.

It was interesting that all four matches in Premier B last week pitched teams which had started the season in Premier 1 against Premier 2 opposition, and Watsonians were the only team from the top flight to pick up a win, defeating Gala 29-24.

This week they host West and will be hoping to improve on the 39-26 defeat they suffered the last time the two teams met back in September.

At least one of the pacesetters in this league will drop points today, with Edinburgh Accies and Peebles facing each other at the Gytes.

In Premier C it is all about staying out of the bottom two, and thus avoiding relegation to Premier 3 next season, which means the visit of basement dwellers Kelso to third-bottom GHA is the match with most intrigue.

TEAMS

Ayr: G Anderson; A Wilson, M Bennett, R Curle, C Taylor; F Climo, AJ Macfarlane; G Reid, S Fenwick, A Kelly, D Stewart, D Kelly, J Crossan, R Colhoun, A Dunlop. Subs: G Sykes, S Adair, S Nimmo, R McCallum, R Fergusson.

Glasgow Hawks: C Gossman; J White, D Kelbrick, D Milne, K Gossman; M Adamson, K Hamilton; G Strain, E Milligan, R Grant, R Hamilton, N Campbell, R McKay, B Karalus, R Miller. Subs: A Smith, G Hunter, G Strang, P Jericevich, T Preece.

Currie: T Brown; A Turnbull, H Abercrombie, A MacMahon, D Fife; M Scott, R Snedden; J Cox, S Simonsen, A Hamilton, R Wilson, G Temple, M Cairns, M Entwhistle, R Weston. Subs: F Gillies, R Merrilees, S Turnbull, S Burton, J Johnstone.

Melrose: F Thomson; C Anderson, J Murray, C Jackson, J Helps; S Wight, R Chrystie; N Little, W Mitchell, G Holborn, G Elder, R Miller, J Dalziel, G Runciman, G Dodds. Subs: F Brown, N Beavon, H Mitchell, S McCormick, C Hardie.

Heriot's: C Goudie; G Bryce, M Learmonth, G Hunter, M Nimmo; R Mill, G Wilson; A Dymock, S Burnett, G Cameron, J Hill, C Osazuwa, P Eccles, S Dewar, J Syme. Subs: K Bryce, J-P Ward, A Spence, J Kohn, C Ferguson.

Hawick: N Renwick; G Anderson, G Johnstone, G Hogg, S Anderson; L Armstrong, G Cottrell; R Sutherland, L Gibson, S Linton, C Charters, M Robertson, D Lowrie, D Landels, B McNeil. Subs: C Robertson, K Davies, N MacTaggart, A Marsh, H Scammell.

Dundee HSFP: J Urquhart; S Coleman, H Duthie, P Horne, R Dewey; R McKenna, A Dymock; N Dymock, S Forrest, A Brown, A Linton, R Hawkins, C Cumming, D Levison, R Milne. Subs: D Russell, S Cessford, R Cessford, R Gray, C Strachan.

Boroughmuir: S Ruddick; J Webster, M Clapperton, H Leonard, H Jones; A Warnock, S Johnson; N Fraser, C MacIntosh, J Latta, A Davidson, G Scott, C Fusaro, A Rose, D O'Rordan. Subs: G Jones, J Duley, J Doubleday, S Wilson, R Samson.