Callum Kerr @ Meggetland
This afternoon Ayr 1st XV fended off Boroughmuir in what turned out to be a thrilling encounter. Trailing at the half, Stuart Fenwick’s men tallied up an impressive 29 points after the interval to seal a 29-39 victory on the road.
A joyous Stuart Fenwick expressed delight – and slight relief – at final whistle: “They (Boroughmuir) didn’t go away and they kept playing rugby… We didn’t expect them to keep coming back the way they did. The pleasing thing for me was that with ten minutes to go we re-composed ourselves and took control.
“If we let the game continue to open up and expand the way they wanted to play that could have been a very different ending.
“We did what we spoke about through the week in terms of what our jobs were in certain areas of the park and that’s what got the result at the end of the day”.
Boroughmuir led 17-10 after the first forty, with Ayr’s tries coming from John Fulton and Jamie Bova.
Ayr kick-stated the second half by going on a 24-point tear to flip the fixture on its head. It was interim skipper Michael Kirk who started the run with a close-range score. The next was courtesy of impact substitute Ben Paterson. The prop – returning to Meggetland for the first time since leaving on a stretcher two and a half years ago – won two scrum penalties within five minutes of being on the pitch, before marking his tenth minute of action barrelling over for a try.
A Jamie Bova penalty followed by a try on debut for Jack Burns made it 17-34 to Ayr after an hour played.
The hosts had no intention of shutting up shop. Two well worked tries within minutes of each other propelled them into the contest and set up a five-point gap between the sides with ten minutes left to play.
The hosts put themselves in touching distance of the line on numerous occasions but couldn’t break through.
With the clock deep into the red, Boroughmuir won a scrum and a last chance to roll the dice. A thunderous drive from Ayr muscled them backwards, resulting in the ball scuttling out and into the opportunistic hands of Ross McCorkindale. He slipped through a hopeful tackle to dive clear and conclude an epic encounter.
Stuart Fenwick refused to pinpoint one man for Player of the Match honours, instead praising the collective effort of the squad: “Yeah we had a lot of great individual performers, but I’m genuinely delighted with every man across the park today”!