THE colour scheme for this post is deliberate. Being Ayrshire-born and bred and a former member of said club, I am hoping that Ayr will tomorrow become the first club to win the Scottish Cup three years in a row, when they face Gala at Murrayfield.
This promises to be a cracking final. Their last meeting, at Millbrae in the league last month, which Gala won, was an epic encounter, deservedly won by the Braw Lads, who made hay on the back of an indifferent Ayr start; Ayr were coming back strongly when prop Gordon Reid was red-carded and that single incident was a game turner.
I didn't see the clubs' other meeting, at Netherdale, at the start of the league campaign, but apparently it too was a classic, so the portents are good. I like what Kenny Murray and his cohorts have done at Ayr, but I am in awe of the manner in which wee George Graham has awakened the sleeping giant which is Gala. Of course, I want Ayr to win, but, if Gala triumph I will be pleased for wee George and for them.
THERE was an interesting post on the Guardian website this week. The poster, an English rugby fan, offered the opinion that Edinburgh's back row was the best unit in the Heineken Cup and he wasn't shot down in flames for offering this opinion.
Funny how things change, prior to Kelly Brown's departure Glasgow's "Killer Bees" of Brown, Johnny Beattie and Barclay were the benchmark, now that honour has moved along the M8, but, of course, one thing Scotland has never been short of is quality breakaway forwards. My Murrayfield memories reach back to the days of Adam Robson Jimmy Greenwood and Douglas Elliot and from them through the likes of George Smith, Pringle Fisher, Ronnie Glasgow, Jim Telfer, Rodger Arneil, David Leslie, the Calder twins, JJ, to today's stars - tis a pity we didn't have such consistent quality elsewhere around the park.
Looking ahead, we may be on the verge of having a surfeit of quality centres from which to pick. In recent weeks Stuart Hogg and Alex Dunbar have lit-up Glasgow, Matt Scott is breaking through for Edinburgh, while Mark Bennett at Clermont-Auvergne has seemingly got over his bad knee injury far better than we might have hoped. Dare we dream of better days ahead?
Speaking of flankers and referring to tomorrow's Cup Final. The game will be flanker Rob Colhoun's farewell appearance for Ayr. Rob is a Kiwi, who is Scottish-qualified and has played for the Scotland Club XV with distinction. Sean Lineen rates him highly, so, let's hope, in his new SRU post, Sean can find a way of keeping Colhoun here. He would not look out of place among the back row resources of our two professional sides, admittedly strong though these resources are. I hope Colhoun has a blinder tomorrow.
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