Callum Kerr @ Millbrae
Ayr 1XV left arguably their best performance of the season to their last home game with an emphatic 64-7 victory over Cartha Queens Park this evening at Millbrae. The last of the daylight dwindled away shortly after kick-off setting up a dramatic scene under the lights in Alloway. Stuart Fenwick’s men rose to the occasion, delivering on much of the promise that’s shimmered in spells throughout their campaign.
(Image – George McMillan)
It comes on the back of a 39-14 win over Melrose on Saturday, with the boys now seemingly hitting their stride at the business-end of the year. It’s too late in the day to challenge, but recent form indicates that their potent mix of youth alongside a few Millbrae veterans bodes well for next season.
At final whistle Stuart Fenwick was full of praise for a clinical performance with ball in hand: “I think attacking-wise you could say that was our best performance of the season. Certainly one of the best. We spoke at length about how we needed to back up the Melrose performance. We came out excited and did a bit of damage in those first ten minutes”.
It’s a score line that Cartha will want to forget, but it doesn’t highlight the full story. Despite early set-back the visitors held in there and made a game of it. A try late in the fixture gave them minimal consolation, but with three previous scores held up over the line it could have been a different match. Fenwick continued: “Fair play to Cartha. They refused to go away. The first half an hour was fairly even. We just had the advantage on the board from the early blitz.
“They had another good patch after half time but we weathered that pretty well and clinical finishing let us pull further away on the little ball we had. Our tempo didn’t drop all game even when we flooded the bench and got everyone on which is immensely pleasing for us”.
One of those to enter the field in the second half was 17-year-old Scott Watson, making his Ayr and senior rugby debut after dispensation from Scottish Rugby at the eleventh hour. Unperturbed by the challenge of bossing a game from stand-off, Watson took to the task at hand like a duck to water. A few glimpses of stardust rounded off a measured performance in the ten jersey, gelling immediately with his new teammates.
“You’d never have known. He kicked from hand really well and made all the right decisions” insisted his head coach: “It is very promising for the future”.
The frantic scoring provided press with a headache when it came to selecting man of the match. A trio of players walked away with two scores, Frazier Climo carved his away around the park providing numerous assists and Cam Reece controlled the game before being rested at half time. In the end, Harry Lynch rose above the rest. Two tries were the product of seamless support running all evening and he didn’t put a foot wrong defensively. He was physical with ball and hand and also provided a few silky touches to put his comrades over.
Ayr will look to take their rich vein of form into their final league match on April 16th, when they travel to Biggar.