Big crowd enjoys Scotland Club XV victory

There was a great turn-out on Friday evening for the second Club International to be held at Millbrae.  Scotland Club XV took on their Irish counterparts and secured a 30-18 victory with more than a little help from three of Ayr RFC's finest.

The Ayr ball kids formed a guard of honour as both teams took to the pitch on a dreich night in Alloway, and the Ayr Pipe Band played a stirring rendition of Flower of Scotland. 

As proceedings got underway, opposing stand-offs Gavin Dunne (Ireland) and Lee Millar (Scotland) had penalty chances but missed.  Millar had another two, slotting the second to get the first points on the board.

Flying prop and man-of-the-match Alex Allan got the first try for the Scots, but Millar couldn't get the conversion.  He nabbed another two penalties though to make the score 14-0 at twenty minutes.

There was a long stoppage, as Ireland Club XV player Brian Quill was taken off with a suspected broken leg. 

The Scots led 17-0 at the interval after another Millar penalty.  The crowd was entertained at half-time by a couple of games between the Ayr and Marr P6s, with the Millbrae minis winning both.

The Irish got things going in the second half with a penalty from Dunne and an unconverted try from Richie Sweeney.  The gap was narrowed to 17-11 when Dunne got another penalty and Scotland Club XV hooker Fraser Brown was sin-binned. 

Ayr's Dean Kelbrick had been putting in some tough work all night, and it was his pass to another Millbrae man Craig Gossman that launched the lord of the wings from his own half on a thrilling run through most of the Irish forwards and several of the backs to score a fantastic try.  Millar got the conversion.  24-11.

Ayr's third player in the squad Peter Jericevich made his Club International debut in the final quarter, replacing George Graham at scrum-half. 

The Irish came back, getting a converted push-over try, despite being down to fourteen men with Willie Ryan in the bin.  But the Scots grabbed two more penalties to make the final score 30-18 and send the fans home very happy.


EH