THESE two teams badly needed the points on offer yesterday, albeit for wildly differing reasons. Ayr had to right the ship after a hiccup at Melrose last weekend and their Border rivals are stuck at the ugly end of the table and must scrap for every point going.
On the day, Ayr had far too much class, muscle and skill for there to be any doubt about the eventual winners as they ran in two tries in each half to seal a bonus point win. With Stirling County also enjoying a bonus point victory, over Edinburgh Ac
cies, yesterday's results sent Hawick to the foot of the table.
Ayr's final try arrived just three minutes from time, with Scott Climo acting the local hero after the fly-half grabbed 19 of his team's 29 points, including the last two tries.
Hawick held out for the first quarter of the match, although they never looked in the slightest bit comfortable in doing so. At least they showed some fighting spirit for the cause after capitulating to Heriot's last weekend; perhaps a little too much since the match was marred by a huge free-for-all which involved just about every player on the field.
The net result of the punch up was a 10-minute stint in the sin bin for Hawick breakaway Dan Landels, who was deemed to have started the fracas, but that was only the first of a great many cards dolled out by referee David Walker in the course of an afternoon that became increasingly confused.
The next one into the bin was Hawick winger Graham Anderson, who went to the sidelines in the second half after a late tackle on AJ McFarlane. Matt Landels followed for giving the referee some unwanted advice just after Ayr prop Stuart Fenwick was binned for the same offence. Hawick winger Colin Murray was then red-carded for abusing the same touch-judge, who had just confirmed Climo's first try of the second half. The fifth and final card, another yellow, went to Ayr prop Gordon Reid for a punch. With the floodlights struggling against the gloom it was almost impossible to see who was still on the field.
Ayr didn't help their cause throughout the afternoon by giving away any number of penalties at the breakdown. Hawick full-back John Coutts saved one certain try with a scything tackle on the flying Florian Marin, but the referee's whistle saved Hawick's blushes far more than anyone in green.
The home backs were way too slick and the Ayr forwards were too big, too strong and far too direct for their visitors and the enduring memory of this match is of green jerseys bouncing off the imposing frame of the Aussie Damien Kelly, as the big lock laid waste to Hawick's defence. The Hawick forwards were only rarely able to work up a head of steam and give their back line any go-forward ball. All too often the poor Hawick fly-half Ally Weir got the ball just a split second before he got a man in a black shirt. With Stirling County winning handily, Hawick are now rooted to the bottom and it looks like being a long, hard winter for their supporters.
Climo popped over an early penalty but it was Kelly who grabbed the first try on 21 minutes after Richard McCallum found a hole in the Hawick midfield big enough for a bus and the centre did all the hard work for his skipper to score. Man of the match McCallum then grabbed some glory for himself, diving over in the right hand corner to stretch the home lead even further.
Hawick did well to restrict the home team to just two tries in the second half, although the match became increasingly disjointed as a regular stream of players trudged back and forwards to the sin bin. The second 40 started like the first, with Hawick keeping their line intact during the opening exchanges, Ayr again butchering any number of openings before eventually finding their way to the line twice late in the day. The home side had already worked the ball over the Hawick line once, twice, maybe three times before the referee finally raised his hand when Climo dived over after some neat interplay with Kelly.
The home team tried everything to grab that elusive bonus point try. Paul Burke dropped a scoring pass and then threw another pass straight to Hawick prop Bruce MacNeil with any number of Ayr players lining up to score. With just a few minutes left on the clock Climo rounded off an excellent afternoon's work by slicing through the Hawick defence one last time and touching down under the posts. There was still time for Ayr to mount one final attack which ended, as so many others had, with the ball held up over the Hawick try line.
Ayr: A Wilson, R Holland (S Magorian 70 min), J Montoro, R McCallum, F Marian; F Climo, AJ McFarlane; G Reid, P MacArthur, G Sykes (S Fenwick 50 min), D Kelly, S Nimmo (S Sutherland 40 min), J Wilson (P Burke 40 min), A Dunlop, G Tippett.
Hawick: J Coutts, C Murray, K Hedley, R Scott (G Johnstone 25 min), A Anderson; A Weir, B Campbell; B Macneill, M Landels, S Linton, M Robertson, K Miller, N McTaggart (R Borthwick 70 min), R Hogg (R Hogg 40 min), D Landels.
Scorers: Ayr – Tries: Kelly, McCallum, Climo (2). Con: Climo (3) Pen: Climo.
Referee: D Walker (Irvine)
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