Arnold Clark Men's Premiership: Ayr defeat Heriot's in battle of the big beasts

Yesterday at 01:01 PM

Heriot’s 19

Ayr 26

DAVID FERGUSON @ Goldenacre

AYR claimed the bragging rights from the delayed first meeting of the Premiership's top two at a sunny Goldenacre, but Heriot's showed in a tense finale that they are not out of the title race yet.

After dominating the opening exchanges and scoring the first try, Heriot's found themselves 26-7 down after half an hour and staring down the barrel of the Ayr gun. At that stage you were beginning to wonder if the Millbrae men were in fact in a class of their own in this league, with not even Heriot's able to hang on their coat-tails.

But the Goldenacre men proved otherwise by scoring before the interval, to cut the deficit to 12 points, and scored a third with ten minutes of the game to go, and finish the game encamped in the Ayr 22. That they left it so late and ultimately failed to match their visitors and claim that fourth try, and so slip five points behind in the Premiership, was clearly disappointing for the hosts, but they are still heading towards a home semi-final.

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And one of their top performers, lock Jamie Campbell, admitted that he had enjoyed the game. "Yes, we're bitterly disappointed to lose it, of course, and there were spells in that game where we had to be better," he said. "But I did enjoy it probably more than any game this season.

"We're ex-Super6 teams who managed to keep a lot of our players, and we've tried to continue from where we left off in the Super6,, and the physicality, the speed of thought, the scrums were evenly matched. We were both competing on each other's line-outs, and the fact we're competing for the top spot all means it was a high level out there.

"We wanted to win our home game – that's the first time we've lost here all season – so it's frustrating not to produce a win, but it only adds fuel to the fire for when we go to them next month. We'll lick our wounds now and get right back into it next week."

This was the first encounter between the top two, this game having been rescheduled from November due to frozen pitches then, and it lived up to the hope of seeing two powerful teams bristling with mostly Scottish talent going toe-to-toe.

Heriot's looked good early on, their pack gripping the first ten minutes and being rewarded with the first try. Openside flanker Samuel Wallace, who was on fine form, had shown his pace with a counter from his 22 which ended with Heriot's pressing the Ayr 22. And while the visitors survived that, they had no answer when Heriot's forwards pummelled at their line from a lineout maul, sucking in defenders, to allow full-back Dan King to find a gap in the stretched Ayr back line, ducking back inside to run over from five metres. King converted for a 7-0 lead nine minutes in.

But, when Ayr got hands on the ball and kept it, they quickly revealed their attacking threat. Just six minutes later, their forwards made good yards up the middle of the park and fly-half Bobby Beattie released Robbie Orr and Jamie Shedden on rampaging runs into the home half. However, it was lock Oscar Baird who finally dived over for the first try, after a solid period of pressure on the home line.

Over the next 15 minutes Ayr took the game away from the hosts, their pack rolling Heriot's back on their heels and the backs' power and pace leaving Heriot's defenders clutching at air. They lost their skipper Blair Macpherson to concussion, but his replacement Tim Brown had another fine performance which ensured there was no let-up in Ayr's momentum in that first period.

With accurate set-piece work from both sides, mostly, and slick service from their half-backs there were few blades of grass not touched. For Ayr, fly-half Bobby Beattie moved the ball well, Orr was a key man again, and he scored the second, while his midfield partner Shedden had a look of Duhan van der Merwe about him as he ran mazy lines up the middle of the pitch before scoring the third and wing Luca Bardelli added the fourth on the 30-minute mark. Three conversions from full-back Chris Hyde had them 26-7 in front and seemingly cruising.

But Heriot's dug in and with big forwards Jason Hill, Ruairidh Leishman and Euan McLaren all making good yards, well supported by their team-mates, and young Edinburgh pro talent Cammy Scott showing just how good he is behind the scrum – this talent needs to be playing more games and is wasted somewhere in Edinburgh's back-up squad – they came back at Ayr and deservedly scored in the final minute of the half through the live-wire Wallace.

Strangely, the power of the sides remained highly visible in the third quarter, but, for all the terrific work-rate and see-sawing of possession, a lot of the quality drained from the game as handling errors and indiscipline crept in, revealing a nervousness in the teams. Referee Jonny Perriam did well to keep the focus on the play as two or three bouts of fisticuffs revealed frustrations, the whistler speaking to players involved but keeping the game moving, and that helped the players get back on track.

Ayr should have put the game out of sight in that period but they got carried away, rushing moves, and wasted several attacking platforms in the Heriot's 22, and the hosts, by contrast, deserve credit for their defensive work, which kept them in it and teed up the drama in the final ten minutes.

With both sides using all their replacements, Heriot's finished the stronger, and a try superbly finished by centre Thomas Glendinning was the reward, after what must have been 30 phases of play in the Ayr 22. They kept the pressure on but found the Ayr defence up to the task, and had to settle for a losing bonus point.

Ayr scorer Shedden admitted: "That was a really tough finish, but we came here to win and a bonus point win away from home is brilliant. We were nervous and you saw that in the second half I think.

"We set our own standards and we know we didn't hit all our gears today, so we've got plenty to work on and that should make sure we keep going hard to the end of the season. We've waited a while to meet Heriot's and we enjoyed that, but we've got four big games still to come now before the play-offs, and we've got to get better if we're going to finish the season the way we want."

Teams –

Heriot's: D King; Z Ross, T Glendinning, F Gibson, G Coull; R Jones, C Scott, S Smith; C Keen, M Liness, E McLaren, P Spence, J Campbell, J Hill, S Wallace, R Leishman. Subs: D Neill, O Bowden, S Cessford, M Keough, R Kirkpatrick, C Townsend, B Evans.

Ayr: C Hyde; T Lanni, J Shedden, R Orr, L Bardelli; B Beattie, F Johnston; J Drummond, J Malcolm, C Henderson, E Bloodworth, O Baird, R Sweeney, L McNamara, B Macpherson. Subs: A McGuire, C Rae, R Tanner, R Jackson, T Brown, B Frame, A Stirrat.

Referee: Jonny Perriam.

Scorers –

Heriot's: Tries: King, Wallace, Glendinning; Cons: King 2.

Ayr: Tries: Baird, Orr, Shedden, Bardelli; Cons: Hyde 3.

Scoring sequence (Heriot's first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-5; 7-7; 7-12; 7-14; 7-19; 7-21; 7-26; 12-26′ 14-26 (h-t) 19-26.

Man-of-the-Match: Picking out an individual this week is near impossible as this was a game of two real team performances, where forwards and backs complemented each other well. Dan King, Thomas Glendinning and Freddie Gibson were central to Heriot's attack and their whole pack performed well, while the whole Ayr backline impressed, and Ryan Sweeney, Lewis McNamara and Tim Brown and front and second-row were impressive, too. But one player that caught the eye was Cammy Scott, the Heriot's stand-off, who brought a speed and quality to Heriot's attack and so despite being on the losing side he takes the MoM this week.

Talking point: Why are talents like Cammy Scott largely unknown in Scottish rugby? It’s great to see Edinburgh releasing this youngster for valuable game-time, but they and Glasgow need to be doing this more often – it benefits the player, his team and the club game in Scotland.

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