Melrose 21 - 25 Ayr: Ayr stand firm in Borders raid

THIS match should be required viewing for all Premier One coaches, and anyone else who loves the game for that matter, because the two teams played this cup final with passion, skill and, above all else, an almost limitless sense of ambition.

The game was a thriller, in the balance right up until the final whistle. Neither side deserved to lose, Melrose stand outs John Dalziel and Fraser Thomson will wonder how they played as well as they did and still ended up coming second, but by scoring four tries to two Ayr probably did enough to deserve their second cup victory in as many years.

"I thought it was touch and go for a while but we eventually pulled through," said a relieved Kenny Murray after the match. "If we had kicked a few more kicks I think we might have got out of reach. I think we played quite well in the first half but playing 20 minutes with just 14 men was tough. We said at half time that we needed to keep our discipline if we wanted to win this match and I think we did that in the second half."

Both sides put the ball through the hands, kept the pace of the game at breakneck speed and oozed class in attack, only the kicking occasionally fall short of the required standard. Both fly-halves Scott Wight and Ross Curle were guilty of some loose clearances and between them the pair managed to miss six pots at goal. Credit where it is due and referee Cammy Rudkin played his part in ensuring an open and exciting game by taking no nonsense from two streetwise sides. As early as the 16th minute of the match he was reaching for the yellow card which he waved in the direction of Stephen Adair after the Ayr hooker prevented Melrose playing the ball five metres from his own line. Just before half time Ayr's No?8 Andy Dunlop took the same trip to the sidelines for the very same reason.

Melrose made them pay the first time with a try but Ayr managed a short-handed effort early in the second half which went a long way towards settling the outcome. It was Mark Bennett's second score and whatever he goes on to achieve in rugby he will remember yesterday afternoon for a long time to come. Playing at outside centre Bennett looked the most dangerous man on the field and he scored two tries both of which owed much to the skill and vision of Curle. The first came when the Ayr playmaker made a classic flyhalf break deep inside Melrose territory before finding the youngster on his shoulder who still had work to do to dab down under the posts. Bennett's second score was even simpler and Curle again was involved in the build up before the centre ran an outside line and he had enough gas in the tank to beat everyone to the line. Little surprise he walked away with the man of the match award.Steve Manning's early effort and an emotional crowd-pleasing five-pointer from the departing captain Damien Kelly all combined to give Ayr a very handy 25-14 lead early in the second half. Prop Nick Beavon grabbed the early try for Melrose and Scott Wight added a penalty but while the Border side were down they were far from being out of this match.

Wight kicked two penalties within four minutes early in the second half before replacement lock Hayden Mitchell threw Melrose a lifeline with a 62nd-minute try. Wight's conversion brought his side within four points of Ayr who then spent most of the final 18 minutes engaged in a desperate, rearguard defence of their try line as Melrose went in search of the winning try.

Time and again the Melrose big men charged at the whitewash and on every occasion Ayr threw themselves into the heavy traffic with scant regard for life or limb.

It was nerve-shredding, nail-biting, angst-inducing drama but in the end Ayr showed enough of the right stuff to hold out and hold on for a famous win.

The two teams meet again next week in a match at the Greenyards with the league title at stake. "We've got it all to do again," said a beaming Murray. "But the pressure is all on Melrose now."

Scorers: Melrose: Try: Beavon, H Mitchell Conv: Wight Pen: Wight (3). Ayr: Try: Manning, Bennett (2), Kelly Conv: Curle Pen: Curle.

Melrose: Thomson; Anderson, Murray, Helps, A Dodds; Wight, Chrystie (Colvine 74 min); Beavon, W Mitchell (Innes 60 min), Holborn (Little 42 min), Elder (H Mitchell 60 min), Miller, Dalziel, Runciman, G Dodds.

Ayr: Anderson; Manning, Bennett, M Stewart, Taylor; Curle, McFarlane; Reid, Adair, Kelly (Sykes 64 min), Sutherland (D Stewart 51 min), Kelly, Colhoun, Burke, Dunlop (Tippett 79 min).

Referee: Cammy Rudkin. Attendance: 4,792.