Friday, 26 January 2018

Heriots v Ayr Preview

Ayr look to go for four-in-a-row in 2018 when they travel to Goldenacre tomorrow to play Heriots.


Currently sitting fifth in the BT Premiership, Heriots trail a playoff spot by just one point. After a five point ‘derby day’ victory over Marr last week Ayr have moved into second- but Currie have a game in hand so there will be plenty of attention on their matchup against Stirling.

The two sides met in the league back in October when Ayr soared to an emphatic 41-17 victory. The scores came from a brace of tries by Frazier Climo and Craig Gossman, with Grant Anderson dotting down as well. Scott Lyle added 14 from the boot and Paddy Dewhirst nailed one conversion.

The squad to play Heriots tomorrow has had a reshuffle from last week’s. Stafford McDowall and Robbie Smith are both unavailable due to Scotland U20s commitments. In their place Lewis Anderson starts at hooker and Scott Lyle moves to fly-half, with Frazier Climo slotting into Stafford’s usual 12 jersey.

On the wing Robbie Nairn is unavailable through injury so youngster Matt Davidson gets his second start of the season. Davidson put in an impressive 80 minutes at centre against Melrose a few weeks ago and now moves to 14. Jamie Bova is on the bench.

With Lewis Anderson starting Ruairidh Sayce comes in as 16th man.

The second XV are also in action at Goldenacre, taking on Heriots’ 2nd XV at 2pm.

 It has been a tougher start to 2018 for Ayr’s 2s. After narrow loses to Glasgow Hawks and Stirling County they will be looking to get back to winning ways tomorrow.

If you can’t make it to Goldenacre tomorrow you can follow all of the action on our social media channels, including a live blow-by-blow report on Twitter @OfficialAyrRFC.

Ayr team: G. Anderson, Davidson, McCluskey, Climo, Gossman, Lyle, Armstrong; Hislop, L. Anderson, Longwell, Macpherson, Sutherland, Spinks, Stokes, McCallum (C)

Substitutes: Sayce, Hunter, Agnew, Dewhirst, Bova

2nd XV: Gray, Gilmour, McCorkindale, Pinkerton, Hamilton, Warr, Young (C); Paterson, Collier, Prentice, Brown, Richardson, Badenhorst, Rae, Reece.

Substitutes: Miller, Arthur, Howie, Chan



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