Bogeymen Melrose continue to haunt Ayr as they seal their date at Murrayfield

A DOUBLE whammy for Melrose as they came good in the final minutes to secure a spot in the BT Cup final as well as bragging rights ahead of the rematch next weekend in the semi-finals of the Premiership, described by winning coach John Dalziel as the bread and butter competition that really matters.

It does mean that he has now won four in a row against Ayr, though Dalziel must be hoping for a match with a little less drama and controversy than this one, with one big call against the home side in the first half when his team got a penalty try from a scrum that collapsed a full 10 yards short of the line, and a strange one late in the game when they realised that under-inflated practice balls had got included in the ones they were using.

“For a semi-final, you can’t have that, playing with non-match balls that are not inflated right” said Dalziel. “It is not the first time it has happened here, you have to ask what was going on.

“We have a kicker who can put it over from 55 yards in his sleep but it affected them too, Frasier Climo [the Ayr fly half] is a really high percentage kicker and he missed two or three vital kicks too. Two big clubs going head to head, you have got to make sure the balls are right and are inflated too.”

For all the controversies, there was no real quarrel about the result. Ayr did have their chances to put the game away when they had spells in control but could not make them pay, though they did claim an early try for Craig Gossman, the wing, and Climo was successful with the conversion and two penalties.

The big problem for Ayr, however, was discipline. The penalty try came when they were down to seven forwards with Will Bordill, the flanker, in the sin bin for killing the ball after a promising Melrose attack, and the levelling penalty from Joe Helps, the Melrose wing, came when they were again down a man with Ross Curle, the captain, off for a dangerous no-arms tackle.

“Large parts of that second half, Melrose defended well and we only got three points for all our domination,” said Callum Forrester, the Ayr coach. “Then we tried to play too much rugby in the wrong areas of the pitch. Discipline let us down and they built the pressure. You are never going to win when you are down to 14 men for as long as we were.

“Things are coming round thick and fast, you can’t go into your shell about it, you have to take it front-on next week and look to go out and get a result. They have been finishing out games better than we have so we have to go out and play for the full 80.”

With the penalty try and two penalties, Melrose had drawn the scores level before Nick Beavons, the prop, bundled over from short range after his side had gone through the phases to set him up. Scorers: Ayr: Try: Gossman (17). Con: Climo. Pens: Climo 2 (25, 44). Melrose: Tries: Pen try (31), Beavon (77). Cons: Helps 2. Pen: Helps (4, 65)