Ayr 38 - 17 West of Scotland: Ayr shrug off injury worries to maintain healthy position at top

"We were well below par in a lot of departments today; but, given our horrendous injury situation, I'm not surprised that we are struggling for continuity. However, we must do better," he continued.

Ayr's handling errors certainly played into the hands of a young and eager West of Scotland team, who like nothing better than to run mistakes back at opponents. This they did at every opportunity and perhaps deserved more than two terrific long-range, counter-attacking tries from winger Callum McKenzie - both of which were converted by Stevenson.

However, Ayr's breakaway trio of Jonno Crossan, Andy Dunlop and Glasgow professional Ryan Wilson repeatedly salvaged threatening situations at the break-down and the manner in which Ayr's own young guns were ever-ready to run made for a harum-scarum, entertaining, if unstructured game.

Sadly, too often, when he had to make a decision, referee Gary Gordon got it wrong.

He was only consistent in his inconsistency and in getting the big calls wrong, leading to frustrations for players and spectators. Gordon Reid's early try, plus two later in the half from wingers Andy Wilson and Cammy Taylor, plus two Mark Bennett conversions, put Ayr 19-3 ahead at the break, Alisdair Stevenson getting the West points from an early penalty.

McKenzie's first try gave West hope after the break, but Andy Dunlop's bonus point-clinching try quickly cancelled that out. Yellow cards for Ayr's Grant Anderson and Ross Curle offered West a window they couldn't open and, as Ayr's forward power told in the final ten minutes, Damien Kelly and Richard McCallum added further tries, either side of McKenzie's second long-range score to take their try tally to six.

Scorers: Ayr - Tries: Reid, A Wilson, Taylor, Dunlop Kelly, McCallum. Conversions: Bennett (4). West of Scotland - Tries: McKenzie (2), conversions: Stevenson (2), penalties: Stevenson.

Ayr: Anderson; A Wilson (Beckwith), Bennett, R McCallum, Taylor; Curle (Steele), MacFarlane; Reid, Adair (MacArthur), Sykes, D Stewart, Nimmo (Kelly), Crossan, R Wilson (Tippett), Dunlop. Subs: M Beckwith, D Steele, P MacArthur, D Kelly, G Tippett

West of Scotland: Sim; Curtis, Dalgleish, Matheson (Davis), McKenzie; Stevenson, McConnell (Malone); McLaren, Carmichael (Haswell), Henderson (Ross), McAlpine (de Saint Croix), Jenkinson, Walker, D McFarlane, Fiskin. Subs: C Davis, S Malone, G Haswell, Ross, A de Saint Croix

Referee: G Gordon