Ayr 7 - 25 Heriot's: Heriot's stun league leaders

Heriot's absolutely crushed the league leaders with a devastating display of forward power at a rain-drenched Millbrae.

Heriot's Michael Liness. Pic: Greg Macvean/Johnston Press

Ayr went ahead in five minutes, Paddy Dewhirst going over from his gathering of a neat grubber from Danny McCluskey, Frazier Climo converted and thereafter the visitors decided their best course of action was to deny their hosts possession.

This their pack duly did and intense pressure saw Ross Jones cut the deficit with a penalty goal on 20 minutes. The one-way traffic continued and close to half-time, when Blair Macpherson was yellow-carded following a stream of penalties against Ayr, Heriot’s went to the corner and Michael Liness touched down at the back of the advancing maul, with Jones converting.

Heriot’s stuck to the script in the second half, another drive producing a second Liness try in 50 minutes. Then Steven Longwell became the second Ayr player to see yellow and Jones goaled the resultant penalty.

It was now a matter of how many Heriot’s driving mauls would pay off and a third, in 72 minutes, enabled Liness to complete his hat-trick.

To compound Ayr’s problems, Alex Dunbar sustained a shoulder injury and left the field. A bad day all round for the home side.