Melrose 21-25 Ayr: Ayr's greater hunger leaves Melrose cupboard bare

THE SCOTTISH Cup will change format next season and hand the initiative back to clubs to create semi-finals that bring together sides from each district, but there was no disputing that the best two teams this season contested the last cup in its present format on Saturday.

The clubs have been working hard with the SRU to reinvigorate the grass roots game with a new season structure, the drama at the close of this season in direct contrast to the complicated, bitty farce of most of the season. The new proposal - to be voted on at the SRU AGM in June - would continue with three Premier divisions of 12 teams and one National division of 12 next season, with regionalisation coming in below that level.

But it will move on in 2012/13 to a solitary Premier division of ten teams above one National league, also of ten teams, with two Championship divisions of ten then split roughly east and west. Below that will be West, Caledonia, East, Midlands, North West and North East divisions.

The proposal for the cup, driven by the clubs themselves, is for a change to run on regional lines, which will help to reduce travel costs and increase interest in local derbies. This means each district (West, Caledonia, Edinburgh and Borders) will run its own qualifying league/cup competition to produce a winner that will progress to the cup semi-finals. The SRU and clubs will this week explain the thinking behind the new plan.

If it produces as exciting a finale as witnessed at Murrayfield on Saturday then it will be able to claim some success. There may have been fewer than 5,000 spectators in the national stadium for a repeat of last year's final - long gone are the days of 25,000 that welcomed the new competition 15 years ago - but it was still three times as many as watched Edinburgh's professional side beat Aironi the night before. Club rugby is still attractive.

And, following entertaining bowl and shield finals, this 80 minutes provided further proof of why that is. Neither side actually hit its straps - Melrose, in particular, took until the second half to find their familiar rhythm - but that suited Ayr, who set out to disrupt the Borderers, defend with fury, battle in the set-piece and work hard in a terrific breakdown contest to restrict supply of ball to Melrose's dangerous backs.

They have finishers of their own and none more special than the centre Mark Bennett, the Clermont Auvergne target who had only a handful of opportunities to show his ability in space but scored from two of them.

They were crucial match-turning scores, the first coming in the 28th minute, created by Ross Curle's direct break from outside the 'Rose 22, and the second just over a minute into the second half, Melrose critically allowing Ayr full-back Grant Anderson to run a kick 40 metres back into their half, and Curle chipping and collecting before Bennett's pace did the rest.

That turned an 8-5 Melrose lead - prop Nick Beavon having responded to Steven Manning's early try after a moment of Melrose enterprise - into a 17-8 Ayr advantage. Ayr had also been down to 14 men just before Bennett's first score and were so again when the centre went over for his second, Stephen Adair and Andy Dunlop incurring the wrath of referee Cammy Rudkin for slowing Melrose ball.

That middle period in the game epitomised Ayr's greater hunger, their solid forward work and committed defence laying down a challenge that too few of the Borderers took up with the necessary passion until the final quarter.

Ayr were not good enough to kill the game off, however, and two Scott Wight penalties had Melrose back in it. Curle moved it back to 20-14 with one of his own, before Damien Kelly provided the captain's lead for Ayr in his last of ten seasons at the club with a fine blindside try just before the hour-mark.

Now 11 points down, Melrose finally ignited as a team, lifting the pace of the game and producing a stunning try finished by lock Hayden Mitchell, which Wight converted. Now with four points in it with 16 minutes remaining, the Melrose faithful found their full voice and, with the Ayr support similarly raucous, Murrayfield began to rock.

Top-scorer Fraser Thomson ran at the Ayr defence, causing bewilderment, No 8 Graeme Dodds battered at the line, Cammie Murray - on as a sub 15 years after appearing for Hawick in the first-ever Cup Final - found gaps, and Wight darted to within a metre. But Ayr stood firm. Nerves jangled, coaches Craig Chalmers and Kenny Murray paced, Melrose supporters wondered why their side were only now coming to life and Ayr supporters roared on their side's defensive effort hoping they could hold out.

Prop Beavon dived over a pile of bodies on the line with three minutes to go and was raging when referee Rudkin said he had been held up; Melrose pressed up close, eventually moving it wide, where Thomson was engulfed in Ayr defenders. And when the men from Millbrae finally won the ball back with a minute left, the trademark vice-like grip of their pack ensured another cup was deservedly won.

The cup might change its shape next season, but one hopes the new structure only enhances the product as, despite the failure of these sides to find their best form, this 2011 cup final was every bit as engrossing as any that had gone before. And it is not over yet as this pair go back into battle at the Greenyards this Saturday with the league title now on the line.

Scorers: Melrose: Tries: Beavon, H Mitchell. Pens: Wight (3). Con: Wight. Ayr: Tries: Manning, Bennett (2), Kelly. Pen: Curle. Con: Curle.

Melrose: F Thomson; C Anderson, J Murray, J Helps, A Dodds; S Wight (capt), R Chrystie; N Beavon, W Mitchell, G Holborn, G Elder, R Miller, J Dalziel, G Runciman, G Dodds. Subs: N Little for Holborn 42mins, G Innes for Mitchell, H Mitchell for Elder, both 60, C Murray for Helps 62, B Colvine for Christie 75.

Ayr: G Anderson; S Manning, M Bennett, M Stewart, C Taylor; R Curle, AJ McFarlane; G Reid, S Adair, A Kelly, S Sutherland, D Kelly (capt), R Colhoun, P Burke, A Dunlop. Subs: D Stewart for Sutherland 51mins, G Sykes for A Kelly 64, G Tippett for Dunlop 79.