Ayr 17 - 5 Glasgow Hawks : Ayr hold on for victory
Scotland on Sunday reports
Published Date: 02 October 2011
By Matt Vallance
AYR survived a stiff second-half examination to win a war of attrition in the Millbrae mud.
The game started in terrible conditions, which explained the sterile opening 25 minutes, broken only by Sylvain Diez's penalty for Ayr.
The home side added two converted tries in the final five minutes of the half to take a comfortable lead into the break.

Stand off Robbie Fergusson got the first in 35 minutes, gliding through the Hawks defence to touch down. The second was all the work of the Ayr pack, Kiwi flanker Jonno Willis being driven over following a line-out on the visitors' line.

Hawks made the most of their one-man advantage from the 46th minute, when Ayr centre Ross Curle was yellow-carded for upending Tom Steven in the tackle. Steven extracted retribution minutes later, going over in the corner.

Ayr's defence held firm thereafter and not even a second yellow, which saw Dunning sit-out virtually the closing ten minutes, could give Hawks enough of an advantage to salvage the game.

This article was posted on 2-Oct-2011, 06:40 by Hugh Barrow.