Moving Day - And Ayr Top The Leader Board

BRYCE Weir, who was on PA duties at Millbrae on Saturday, came up with the best description I have yet heard of for this 2018-19 Scottish rugby season. As we waited for the action to kick-off, his contribution to the press box brain-storming meeting was that this is: “moving season.”

Pat McArthur - had a second coming for Ayr on Saturday

He used that in the sense of how the third round of any professional golf tournament is known as: “Moving Day” - the day when the eventual contenders or the big cheque and the trophy come to the top of the leader-board.

Certainly, the big clubs, of which number, Ayr and Melrose are as big as you get, are now recruiting the players they feel they will need for when S6 comes in in a year or so's time, but, elsewhere, they guys from other clubs who want to get to the new big show, are starting to shine.

Shine some certainly did. Take young Finlay Scott, the Melrose hooker who is on a dual-registration deal with his original club Jed-forest. Finlay came on for Russell Anderson at half-time, initially against his Scotland U-20 friend and rival Robbie Smith, before locking horns with former Scotland cap Pat McArthur, having his second “debut” as an Ayr player – some 14 years or so after his first. You cannot buy that sort of experience.

It may be, in two or three years' time, that we see Stafford McDowall and Paddy Kelly at 12 and 13 for Glasgow Warriors, meanwhile, they are getting to know each other very effectively with Ayr. And, who is to say we might not see Jason Baggot and Craig Jackson in Edinburgh's colours.

OK, I feel ideally, these young tyros ought to be playing for Edinburgh and Glasgow A teams in an extended Celtic Cup, but, Murrayfield has said no to that notion, so, we can enjoy watching them in the Premiership and next season in S6. Although I still wait for reality striking and S6 being reclassified as a “Performance” competition.

Regardless, however, of S6 being a performance or a domestic/development one, if the quality of the rugby comes anywhere close to what we got at Millbrae yesterday – the new competition has a bright future.

 Fraser Thomson - as-ever, a threat for Melrose on Saturday

The collisions were at times brutal – you will not see any-more commitment at PRO14 level; the skill levels were very high – the younger players on both sides can play, while time has not withered the likes of Fraser Thomson of 'Rose, or Frazier Climo for Ayr.

The Kiwi is re-born this season. He worked really hard on his fitness over the summer, and it showed, while he contributed 18 of Ayr's 38 points. Thomson, after giving his hamstring a thorough pre-match assessment, seemed a bit tentative in the first half, but, as Melrose came back at Ayr in the second – he played as well as I have seen him, and that's very well indeed.

Oli Keeble's return to full fitness, coupled with Alex Allan's fine form, has seen Jamie Bhatti's star somewhat eclipsed this season. He did, however, rumble around to good effect in half a game for Ayr. His presence certainly helped Ayr gain set-piece dominance, but, when he came on for the Scotland cap, young Ruaridh Sayce didn't allow the standard to drop that much.

A low point was the lengthy hiatus, while Ruaridh Knott, one of the most-honest and unselfish club players in Scotland, was treated on the field and then removed on a stretcher. I hope the injury is not as-serious as it looked.

Another injury saw Ayr scrum-half David Armstrong collect another half-dosen stitches to an eye cut, allowing him to do a Pirate Pete impression when he returned with his head bandaged.

Sam Grove-White, lead man in a very good refereeing team on Saturday

Finally, as I put the Match of the Day to bed, kudos to the third team, of Sam Grove-White, Lloyd Linton and Alistair Watt, who handled the game very well, communicated brilliantly and added to the spectacle.

Three yellow cards, none of them controversial, well done lads.

ELSEWHERE, there were tries galore – 15 in all – during Currie Chieftains' 71-28 trouncing of Glasgow Hawks at Malleny Park. The first half was a see-saw affair, with the lead changing hands thrice, however, in a spell just before and after the oranges, Currie went from 17-21 down to 45-21 ahead and it was game over. Currie then added 2 unanswered points in the final exchanges to complete another bad day at the office for the Hawks kids.

THERE was a big finish at Bridgehaugh, where STIRLING COUNTY came back from 12-0 down to lead 17-12, only for Charlie Simpson to demonstrate, there is someone among the BT Murrayfield minions who knows where the try line is to put HERIOTS 17-19 ahead. Mind you, it still needed a miraculous finger-tip intervention from Callum Marshall, to deflect a seemingly-certain scoring pass from Ratu Tagive reaching Andrew McLean, before the Nails had won.

ONE OF the untold stories of the Commonwealth Games, earlier this season, is the one of the Scottish football writer, taxed with covering the Games for his paper, being approached in a bar by an elderly ex-pat Scot, who lived on the Gold Coast.

Fraser Renwick, pictured in Hawick's green

“Is it safe to come home yet?” was the question asked by the ex-pat, big Frank Haffey. WATSONIANS' hooker Fraser Renwick might well be asking the same question, after his hat-trick of tries in 'Sonians' 54-15 win over HAWICK, at Myreside.

That Renwick was one of half-a-dozen exiled Teris in the winning side did not help the air of gloom which hung over the Station Bar on Saturday night, as the ghosts of Stevie, Hughie, the Voice and the other greats in green were invoked. These are sorry times for Hawick.

THE CLOSEST game of the day was at Raeburn Place, where it was squeaky bum time for BOROUGHMUIR'S Greg Cannie, as he prepared to slot home a late winning penalty for the visitors. He was up to the task.

EDINBURGH ACADEMICAL trailed 5-12 at the break, before a Vincent Hart penalty and George Spencer's second try of the game put the Accies within sniffing distance of that elusive first win at 13-12. Then, up stepped Caddie.

Accies' coach Derek O'Riordan admitted, post-match: “we want to build a squad and a system that can go on and win the Championship in its first year.”

Which brings us full-circle to Bryce Weir and “Moving Day.”