Repeat of last season’s Arnold Clark Men’s Premiership final as club rugby heavyweights set to run it back
Currie Chieftains have the chance to make a huge statement this weekend as the Malleny outfit head to Ayr in a repeat of last season’s Premiership final.
Mark Cairns takes his side to Millbrae where they were beaten 41-27 as the hosts secured the title and completed an unbeaten league campaign. This time around they find the reigning champions having finally been conquered after a 31-14 defeat at Heriot’s last month.
Since then the West of Scotland outfit have bounced back with a 55-28 win at home to GHA and 36-28 victory away to Glasgow Hawks. The latter scoreline from last weekend stood out with Ayr having been run closer than many would have expected by the division’s current bottom team and head coach Grant Anderson revealed why he was not pleased with their performance despite picking up the bonus point win.
‘Like trying to catch smoke’ - Ayr head coach ‘can’t put finger on’ why things aren’t quite clicking for reigning champions
He said: “Lots of my players live in Glasgow and know those Hawks, they share a district team, there's familiarity there. It goes one way or the other, either you end up nearly fighting with them and want to destroy them or you end up fannying about and I think I saw more of the latter on Saturday.
“Was that because they're bottom of the league at the moment and some of the players thought we'll just do enough to get it out the way then we'll go for a beer with them later? I don't know. Our review was fairly scathing from me.
“It's a really difficult thing to put your finger on at the moment with us, a week prior the GHA performance was outstanding. It's a wee bit like trying to catch smoke at the moment, I can't quite get to the one singular root cause of why we're just not clicking but we're still winning so that's what matters on the table.”
Anderson also anticipates that Currie will approach this weekend’s match with a similar game plan as Hawks implemented, adding: “Hawks didn't want to put the ball out. I don't know in wet windy days if every team are going to do that against us but it was probably a great way to prepare for this Saturday because Currie kind of do the same thing.”
‘We used that emotion in the right way’ - Currie players do Ally Donaldson proud with commanding win over Kelso
Last weekend was an emotional one for the Chieftains as they returned to action for the first time since the sad passing of their former head coach Ally Donaldson. They were able to channel that into a commanding 48-5 home victory over Kelso.
“Trying to manage the players' emotions around that game, based on how much Ally meant to the whole club, I think we got it spot on,” explained head coach Mark Cairns. “We used that emotion in the right ways so we were really physical but then we were executing well under pressure.
“[Against Ayr] I don't think it will be a surprise but we'll want to move the ball about and to use the skills that the players have to make good decisions in moments and the structure really is there to provide them with opportunities to make decisions. That's what we'll be doing.”
Elsewhere in the Premiership this weekend there are three derby clashes as GHA host Glasgow Hawks, league leaders Melrose are at Kelso and Heriot’s welcome Edinburgh Accies to Goldenacre. The other contest sees Watsonians travel to Hawick.
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