Ayr land a late blow on County
Injury-time try a sickener for Stirling
Stirling County.25 Ayr ................... 27 Stirling County missed out on the chance to claim a notable scalp as Tennent’s Premeirship leaders Ayr grabbed the win with a dramatic injury-time try.
With the clock running down and County leading 25-22, Scott Lyle broke clear and fed Paddy Dewhirst for the winning score.
As the referee blew the whistle for full-time, the frustration was evident as County had so excruciatingly lost their advantage, while Ayr had by no means played their best rugby.
“I thought we played really well, dominated a lot of the possession. We really upset their line-out, they didn’t have a base there at all,” said Stirling County head coach Eddie Pollock.
“Eight points or so up with about 10 minutes to go, we should have won the game. We should have closed it out from there, but we missed a line-out throw, and that was the turning point in the game.
“We had defended really well up until then and we should really have been able to exit quite easily from there, but that sort of changed the game there from our point of view.”
The home side had drawn first blood when No8 Ali Mackie battered his way across the line after several phases of attack from the hosts with fullback Jonny Hope adding the conversion.
The visitors responded straight away with Kyle Rowe dancing his way through the home defence — palming off a missed tackle from Logan Trotter in the process — before sending Frazier Climo in for a score under the sticks. The fly-half converted his own try to level the scoreboard.
County got themselves back on to the front foot with a driven line-out taking play to five metres from the Ayr line and then after some patient recycling, Ewan MacGarvie appeared on the right wing to run in five more points, although Hope was unable to add the conversion.
The power of County’s maul was once again evident when it drove from just inside the 22 to within striking distance for hooker Andrew Orr to flop over for an unconverted score.
Ayr winger Paddy Dewhirst capitalised on a County fumble to pull a try back for the visitors and while Climo couldn’t add the conversion, he was on target with a penalty soon after.
The remainder of the first half saw possession see-saw between the two sides, with neither able to add anything else to the scoreboard, meaning the hosts took a narrow 17-15 lead into the break.
With the natural light beginning to fade, the two teams ran out for the second half. County struck first after the restart with Peter Jericevich nabbing an overthrown line-out and lunging across the line.
When Ayr’s Blair Macpherson was penalised for a high tackle well inside his side’s half, Hope’s decision to kick for goal paid off, as it allowed County to stretch their lead by three more points.
After being held up over the line twice, Ayr finally got some reward for a sustained period of pressure when Steven Longwell gathered lost ball from a County lineout and smashed over the whitewash. With Climo’s conversion good, Ayr were back in the hunt.
The intensity nearly got the better of both sides with handbags swung on a couple of occasions during the final ten minutes.
It was messy and hard fought for in the end, but Ayr got the score they needed when Lyle fed Dewhirst for an 81st minute try.
Even with the conversion missed, it took the league leaders two points ahead of the home side and secured a dramatic victory.
On Saturday County visit Currie Chieftains.
STIRLING COUNTY: Hope, Trotter, Brogan, MacGarvie, Dineen; Jericevich, Turnbull; Chies, Orr, Walker, Pow, C Henderson, Burr, Bundy, Mackie. Subs: Robertson, Nicol, Yarrow, Arnott, Jardine. ●Stirling County 2nds (Stirling Wolves) match at home to Ayr in Tennent’s National Reserve League Division 1 fell foul of the weather on Saturady and this week the Bridgehaugh face a trip to bottom of the table Marr. The 3rds (Stirling Accies) were up against leaders Blairgowrie in Tennent’s Caledonian Midlands 2. Three weeks ago County came out on top 17-13 at home and this was another close match with Blairgowrie winning 24-18.