Ayr were somewhat disrupted ahead of the match with the withdrawal of Bobby Beattie, scheduled to start in the number 10 jersey, who was replaced by David McCartney.

“We’d named the team Thursday night, so that’s how we assumed we’d start today. Davie is very different to Bobby, so it then changes the style of our game a wee bit,” reflected Anderson.

“I’m saying I’m unhappy but that’s because we constantly want to improve and I want to push us on. Quite a bit of learning for us in our review on Tuesday night but, at the same time, happy with the result. We probably needed this last week, a final warm-up game to get rid of some rust.”

The opening quarter was highly competitive, Luca Bardelli’s opening score of the season coming when Ayr got the nudge on in a centrally located scrum, and when the ball was tossed wide, the winger had far too much space to gallop into.

The visitors were soon on level terms when Liam Brims took a quick penalty in the Ayr 22, and Ryan Flett carried into contact before releasing Euan Muirhead to score, but then Ayr decided to bring the boom.

It started with a scrum penalty and ended with Alex McGuire crossing at the back of the maul, then a touch of good fortune saw the ball plop at Ed Bloodworth’s feet and the big lock showed good gas to get into the 22 before sending Jamie Shedden over, before Ryan Sweeney’s close-range finish after another line-out maul – created by Scott Watson’s teasing, trickly 50-22 – put Ayr in a dominant 24-7 lead.

A coach-killer of a penalty conceded by Yousuf Shaheen in the dying embers of the half led to Bardelli’s second, another kick to touch and maul created space, and the winger dived into the corner despite Flett’s best efforts.

Hawks refuse to lie down

To Hawks’ credit, they came out in the second half firing, dominating possession and territory until Max Morrison got over, but then Oscar Baird’s terrific work at the restart saw the ball back in Ayr hands, and replacement hooker Jamie McAughtrie soon went over from that maul once again.

McAughtrie nearly got over again, this time from open play, and in the resulting breakdown Harvey Preston played the scrum-half and Ayr captain Blair Macpherson opened his account for the season.

Watson was sent to the bin for a high tackle – not the first one of the day – on the fleet-footed David Barrie, and another penalty five-metres out saw Hawks’ captain Paul Cairncross match Macpherson by going over.

A “little bit of needle” turned into a whole load of pushing and shoving after Morrison and Macpherson crossed paths, and with referee Sam O’Neill’s patience evaporating quickly, Hawks were marched back 10 metres after conceding a side-entry penalty, and Andy Stirratt finished off the first-phase move from the line-out. Jack Craig drop-kicked the conversion over after getting fed up with the kicking tee.

Tempers boiled over again with roughly seven minutes left to play, leading to Fraser Muir and Rhodri Tanner both picking ip yellow cards, with Ayr’s Welsh hooker-turned-prop fortunate not to have seen red. Unfortunately for Brandon Sweet, who had only just come off the park, it meant he had to put his boots back on and replace Muir at scrum -time.

There was still time for one last Stirratt try when he somehow managed to hold onto McCartney’s cross-kick with the last play of the match, and although he had just seen his new side soundly beaten, Phil Smith saw signs of encouragement.

“We knew it was going to be a physical challenge, and when we look back at the game we were outmuscled in certain areas that led to scores; driving maul being one example, and our scrum was under a lot of pressure,” he said.

“But, if we look at our stamp on the game, we actually did better than we maybe anticipated because we’ve had a fairly broken pre-season. My hope is that we take on board what we did today and roll it into games which are more obviously winnable than visiting Millbrae on game one of the season.

“The boys are disappointed, [and] to get a bonus point try at the end would have been nice. They put a lot in and didn’t feel massively threatened until certain parts of the game where Ayr were clinical, but we are quietly happy.”

 

Teams –

Ayr: S Watson; J Craig, J Shedden, A Stirrat, L Bardelli; D McCartney, F Johnston; J Drummond, A McGuire, C Henderson, E Bloodworth, R Jackson, R Sweeney, T Brown, B Macpherson (c). Subs: J McAughtrie, R Tanner, C Rae, O Baird, S Rae, A McGowan, T Lanni

Glasgow Hawks: E Muirhead; R Flett, F Callaghan, L Jarvie, J Hastings; L Brims, C Reidy; F Muir, P Cairncross (c), B Sweet, A Orr, A Brennan, Y Shaheen, H Preston, S Hastings. Subs: C Nolan, M Morrison, S Gray,  J Martin, A Syme, H Roxburgh, D Barrie

Referee: Sam O’Neill

 

Scorers –

Ayr: Tries: Bardelli 2, McGuire, Shedden, Sweeney, McAughtrie, Macpherson, Stirrat 2; Cons: Watson 5, Craig.

Hawks: Tries: Muirhead, Morrison Cons: Brims (3)

Scoring sequence (Ayr first): 5-0; 7-0; 7-5; 7-7; 12-7; 17-7; 22-7; 24-7; 29-7; 31-7 (h-t) 32-12; 31-14; 36-14; 38-14; 43-14; 43-19; 43-21; 48-21; 50-21; 55-21; 57-21.

 

Yellow Cards –

Ayr: Watson, Tanner

Hawks: Preston, Muir

 

Player-of-the-Match: Quite a tough one to call given that it wasn’t the most fluid of games, but Andy Stirrat got himself a brace and got the better of the key head-to-head battle.

Talking point: Both sides were guilty of some pretty poor challenges, which we’ll politely put down to ring rustiness.