Ayr

Melrose finished off a near-perfect Premiership season with a scrappy, hard-earned victory over defending champions Ayr in the play-off final.

The SRU has received 12 applications from clubs to form franchises in the new part-time professional Super 6 league which is due to launch in the 2019/20 season.

Any notion that the BT Premiership title is Melrose’s for the asking was surely dispelled by Ayr’s victory in this ferocious contest on Saturday.

Ayr will not give up their title easily. There were times earlier in the season when even a place in the play-offs was in jeopardy, and times in this Premiership semi-final when they were just clinging on. But they got there in the end, and travel to the Greenyards for the final in two weeks with their morale as high as it has been since the memorable day last spring when they were crowned champions at that very venue.

Ayr defeated Watsonians 27-17 to clinch third place in the BT Premiership and a play-off semi-final away to Currie. Sonians finish fourth in the table and will be on the road to Melrose in their last four clash.

A cracking first half performance from Marr earned them this win over Currie Chieftains and kept their slim chances of avoiding relegation alive.

Ayr made amends for last week’s BT Cup quarter-final loss at Mansfield Park with this bonus-point BT Premiership win in the glaur of Millbrae – the victory taking them closer to a place in the play-off semi-finals next month.

County president John Wright flagged up in his match programme notes that this was likely to be a nail-biter in the battle for BT Premiership survival.

Melrose put any residual effects of their January jitters behind them by defeating Heriot’s to guarantee a home final in the play-offs if the Greenyards men win their semi.

Heriot’s kept their composure for once to negotiate a wind-spoiled game better than Ayr and keep alive their hopes of a Premiership play-off place.

Heriot’s needed a late penalty try to stay in contention for a Premiership play-off place but ultimately they were deserving winners over stubborn Ayr.

Ayr, without hitting their straps, won this strange Ayrshire derby by five tries to four, to climb above the idle Currie into second place in the BT Premiership. But, the victory was by no means clearcut in a helter-skelter, and at times scrappy, battle.

These are curious times at Stirling, with an improved side apparently incapable of seeing out matches from winning positions.

Melrose were given a stark reminder that past performances do not in themselves guarantee future returns after the runaway championship leaders’ 12-match 
winning streak was brought to an end by the title holders, 
Ayr.

After a 12-match winning sequence in the BT Premiership, Melrose finally showed they are not invincible, succumbing to a strong Ayr team determined to remind rugby followers that they are still the reigning champions.

The year ahead promises to be an interesting one for rugby. The best two teams in world rugby will meet for the first time since 2014 and either New Zealand or England will get a huge boost one year out from the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

In the end, it came down to two missed goal kicks by Scott Lyle for the home side, but, the truth is, Currie were a long way more than two points ahead of their hosts in winning this match. Only in the set scrums were Ayr the better side and, but for a some dropped balls, the visitors might well have been out of sight by the break.

Spectators at the Greenyards were left disappointed when the Melrose v Ayr BT Premiership match was called off by the visitors seconds before kick-off.

Ayr won this game of two halves on the plastic pitch at Lochinch, to give themselves just the boost they needed before next week’s visit to Melrose.