Talismanic Forrest returns to Ayr in bid for league title

With his professional sevens contract having not been renewed the 25-year-old has returned to Millbrae where he was part of the championship winning side in 2008/09.

Last term Forrest turned out a number of times for Currie on release from Scottish Rugby and as a result will be looking to win his third Premier One title in a row when the season kicks off on 21 August.

Forrest can play centre or back-row and Ayr assistant coach Peter Laverie said: "It is great to be able to add someone of Scott's ability to our squad. Myself and head coach Kenny Murray have known him for a long time having worked with him at district level as he moved through the age-grades and he is really good tactically. He is also a good communicator on the pitch and that is always good."

Having learnt his trade at Cambuslang Forrest then moved on to Glasgow Hawks before signing for Glasgow Warriors in 2005. A year later he moved to the Border Reivers, making his debut in January 2007 and also turning out for Hawick. The former under-19 and 21 player then went to Ayr in 2007 and has been heavily involved on the IRB Sevens circuit in recent times.

Premier Cup holders Ayr have also snapped up two of the most promising teenagers in the west. Centre Mark Bennett, a stand-out for Scotland under-18 last term, has joined from Cumnock along with Marr College's back three player Murray Beckwith.

Laverie added: "They are both young, but they have bags of potential. Both of them have great pace and we are looking forward to working with them."

Meanwhile, the Scottish Rugby Union has announced the fixtures for the 2010/11 Premier Cup, National Shield and Regional Bowl. Overall the competition has retained its three-tier format, with the Shield and Bowl remaining unchanged, however, a new Premier Cup structure, complete with a pool stage, will come into play in 2010/11. This season the competing 36 teams from Premier 1, 2 and 3 have been drawn in nine pools of four with each team seeded according to the previous season's performance in league competition.

The top seven winners of the pools will go directly into the Cup quarter-finals while the bottom two winners will play off for eighth place, with the eight teams progressing to the knockout stages.

All three finals will then come to a head on Cup Finals day at Murrayfield on 16 April.

Last season Ayr lifted the Premier Cup at the home of Scottish Rugby in front of 5,616 crowd and a west stand bedecked in pink and black.

Club president, William McHarg, said: ""Getting to the cup final again is certainly one of the club's priorities."

Scottish Rugby's head of community rugby, Colin Thomson, added: "League competition is our priority so, as part of this season's restructure, we began by allocating the best playing windows available to the league. However, we recognised that we also need to improve the standard of our cup competitions. The restructure means that all Premier teams will play a minimum of three cup games allowing Premier 2 and Premier 3 clubs to pit themselves against higher placed opposition."