Heartbreak in play- off final
If you were looking for spectacular, end to end attacks with scintillating breaks and breathtaking handling – sorry, you picked the wrong game in the BT Premiership Final at the Greenyards.
This was what real rugby is about. When you have busted your backside for 19 games to get to the final and there is no way you are going to give that effort away with the equivalent of spectacular bicycle kicks.
So it turned out and things were only made more dismal for the purists when the rain started and the ball squirted about like a recalcitrant lemon.
It was serious coal face stuff and both sides are not just good but outstanding at that and on the day, Melrose’s application, discipline and desire was just that wee bit greater than Ayr’s.
The margin reflected in the closeness of the result.
Given the conditions, the tension and the prize, it would have been astonishing had a gap opened up in the scoreline for either side and so it proved.
Scott Lyle nudged over a penalty after an opening six minutes which had seen Ayr at their most abrasive but Craig Jackson levelled the scores when Ayr were penalised at the breakdown.
The first real line break came when Ross McCann scampered away from the Ayr defence but his pass went to ground.
From the resulting scrum, Melrose were awarded one of many, some might say controversial, set- piece penalties which frustrated the Ayr front row and indeed the whole side.
Jackson’s kick took Melrose ahead then Ayr’s response was as clinical as it was blissfully simple, David Armstrong sidling away from the scrum base to put Stafford McDowall away on a perfect angle then held his nerve to put in a perfectly timed pass for Rory Hughes to go in under the posts presenting Lyle with the easiest of conversions.
The Ayr No10 then launched a monster penalty from more than forty- five yards to take Ayr to 13- 6 ahead with half time approaching but fate took a hand.
The Ayr defence halted a Fraser Thomson - Grant Riunciman foray but from the subsequent scrum – again – they were penalised and suffered the double whammy of seeing Jackson’s penalty soar over while Robin Hislop trudged to the naughty step for ten minutes.
Even though they trailed 13- 9 at the break, you had a sneaky feeling that Melrose might just have more in the locker for the second forty and so it proved.
Ayr were still down to 14 men when Melrose had the territory, then the possession and finally the guile as Jackson wrong- footed the Ayr defence, created the hole and put Grant Runciman through it.
Jackson converted the try he had created and the stage was set for a half hour showdown with three points all there was to separate the sides in a league season stretching back to last August.
In a similar position last season, Ayr had kept their nerve but this time it was Rob Chrystie’s troops who manned the barricades with passion, skill and discipline and nothing Ayr could do was going to break the resolve of the borderers.
Ayr gave it their best, Melrose held out and in the end, deserved the prize which went to the side who has shown the greater consistency throughout the season.
However, the game left no doubt as to which two sides deserved to be there for this monumental clash.