Kilmarnock U18s welcomed neighbours Ayr to Bellsland on Saturday, however with only 13 players available due to illness and injury, and only one qualified front row, an eagerly anticipated competitive match was conceded early and turned into a development game.

In true sporting fashion, Ayr agreed to play as competitive a game as possible as 13 aside - with scrums changing to being uncontested.

Regardless of the numbers, this game did still have a competitive edge to it - and after an early score from Ayr, Kilmarnock showed some good attacking flair, causing plenty of problems for the Ayr defence and plenty of sustained pressure - but a stern defence, mixed with some wrong decision making due to perhaps some over enthusiasm , kept the score line in favour of Ayr.

In the end, Ayr proved to be too strong for the home side, and after going down to 12 players, the game moved to a 15 aside game after 10 minutes of the second half, with 3 Ayr players joining the ranks of Kilmarnock - which I’m sure they thoroughly enjoyed!

The ref recorded the game as 12-45 before moving to a 15 aside game, which stopped a few minutes ahead of time with the Scotland game looming.

Huge credit to both teams, and hopefully next time they meet, there will be more of a competitive edge.

Today’s try scorers were Daniel Christie and Thomas Dunlop, with Thomas also slotting one conversion.

We don’t have a man of the match for today, but there is special mention for Laughlan Whitelaw and Cameron Cottrell who stepped out of their comfort zone from the back line to play in the scrum.

This is the end of our 15 aside season and our focus now turns to upcoming 7’s and 10’s tournaments.

Thanks to Ayr for their sportsmanship today and we wish them well in their cup final.

Kilmarnock Rugby Football Club

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