AYR recorded a first Scottish victory in the British and Irish Cup last night in convincing fashion. This might not have been Rotherham's best side but that is not important.
You can only beat what is put in front of you and last season's league champions did that in impressive style. The big debate before this tournament was introduced at the start of the season was whether essentially amateur Scottish club sides were eq
uipped to compete against the predominantly professional teams of the English Championship – the tier before the Guinness Premiership – and the answer after two rounds of matches seems to be an emphatic yes. They won't always win – but there have been no major embarrassments yet.
There was a feeling within the Ayr squad that they had not given a fair account of themselves in last Sunday's loss to Doncaster, and there was a clear desire to make amends on home territory in front of a large partisan crowd last night. Apart from failing to collect the kick-off and conceding a penalty, which visiting stand-off Mike Whitehead clipped over with less than a minute played, they were equal to their opponents in every facet, and better than them in a few crucial areas.
Unfortunately this match was blighted by an overbearing referee. Welsh whistler David Jones handed out over ten penalties in the first 20 minutes and two yellow cards to Scott Sutherland of Ayr and Ryan Burrows of Rotherham. The penalties continued at this rate throughout, and there were two more yellow cards in the second half. It was a shame because it meant the game didn't flow as it should have.
Frazier Climo kicked six penalties for Ayr, but the crucial contribution came from Pat McArthur, who was sent into space by Glenn Tippett for a tenth minute try which seemed to reinforce Ayr's belief that they are capable of competing at this level.
The home team led 20-6 at half time and Gordon Reid rumbled over after the restart after a scything break from Paul Burke, to extend his teams lead. But as the game wore on the superior fitness of the professionals began to tell and most of the second period was about desperate home defence.
Ed Kalman was sent to the sin-bin for desperately collapsing a Rotherham maul as it rumbled towards the line, and eventually Ben Coulbeck pulled a try back for the visitors with a mazy run through some tired Ayr bodies, but that was as close as the Englishmen got.
Scorers: Ayr: Try: McArthur, Reid; Pens: Climo 6.
Rotherham: Try: Coulbeck; Con: Whitehead; Pens: Whitehead 2.
Ayr: G Anderson; A Wilson, R Curle, M Stewart, S Manning; F Climo, J Hunter (A McFarlane 53); G Reid, P McArthur (G Sykes 72, E Kalman (Tippett 63, Francis 69), D Kelly, S Sutherland, A Dunlop, P Burke, G Tippett (H Mitchell 53).
Rotherham: B Coulbeck; A Henderson, P Gidlow, N Buckley (T Allen 56), M Farmer; M Whitehead, N Chivers (M Rhodes 63); C Voisey(A O'Donnell 40), N Conroy (S Jenkins 74), B Prescott (C Quigley 40), M Challinor (G Hayter 47), S Dickinson, A Barnes, R Burrows, J Skurr.
Referee: D Jones (WRU).
