Ayr RFC
New season, new developments
Further to the article about Ayr Rugby Football Club in issue 55 of AM, we can now report that the new road into Millbrae, the club’s home for over six decades, has been completed. It won’t, however, be until the new 3G all-weather pitch at the eastern end of Millbrae has been installed, most likely around Christmas, that the road opens to rugby traffic.
Also very much in the pipeline are new LED floodlights for both pitches at Millbrae. Considerably more powerful, more efficient and more environmentally friendly than the existing floodlights, they should also be ready for action by late December, with the first evening game under the lights scheduled to be a local derby against Marr RFC on Friday 7th February 2025.
The club will also be pressing ahead with its plans to create an academy set-up at Dam Park Stadium in conjunction with the Scottish Rugby Union and the University of the West of Scotland. In the meantime, the club, with the support of Girvan-based sponsors, We Hae Meat, is setting up an indoor scrummaging academy at Millbrae using one of the latest pneumatic scrum machines from equipment manufacturer Silver Fox.
A smaller but still significant change is the creation of a new online merchandise portal operated by O’Neills, the club’s kit supplier, which will reduce the administrative burden on the club. The club shop at Millbrae will continue to operate but with a reduced stock of new products alongside sale items.
Another initiative is the introduction of Christmas Party Nights at Millbrae. The club is keen to attract more functions and events to the clubhouse’s function suite, and thanks to the new road ease of access will soon join Millbrae’s impressive range of attributes as a venue.
On the playing side, the termination by the Scottish Rugby Union of the semi-professional Super Series earlier this year has shook up the domestic rugby scene. With all six Super Series teams, including the Millbrae-based Ayrshire Bulls, having now ceased to exist, a number of changes have been made to the structure of Scottish club rugby. In particular, the Premiership has temporarily been extended to 12 teams but will revert to 10 after a single season.
From an Ayr perspective, the ending of the Bulls (the most successful Super Six/Super Series team of all) has seen an increase in the size of the men’s senior squad, with a number of former Bulls players having elected to join Ayr’s existing pool of players. Although having a sizeable squad of talented players to choose from requires careful management to ensure that harmony is maintained, it’s definitely one of the better problems to have.
Ayr’s 2024/25 Premiership campaign began with a home game on 31st August against the defending Premiership champions, Currie Chieftains. The match kicked off a little later than usual, though, as Millbrae was also hosting a rather different kind of event that day: the wedding of former Ayr player Josh Currie to Michelle Nicol. It was the first wedding ceremony ever to be held at Millbrae.
Josh and Michelle’s wedding turned out to be the day’s high point from a Currie perspective, as the Chieftains came unstuck against the men from Millbrae, losing by 34 points to 17. Although the try count of six to two in Ayr’s favour offered a better reflection of the home team’s dominance, the Ayr coaches will undoubtedly have noted several areas in which improvement will be needed if the coveted Premiership title is to return to Millbrae at the end of the season.
Although the ladies team, wearing the same strip as the men’s team for the first time in the club’s history, was on the wrong end of a 25 points to 17 scoreline against Greenock, several of the club’s other teams tasted victory over the opening weekend, not least the men’s 2nd XV, who beat Stirling County’s 2nd XV by 56 points to 14 at Dam Park.
A good start to the season, then, and with fundraising for the redevelopment of the Millbrae clubhouse now underway, there’s plenty to look forward to, both on and off the pitch.
www.ayrrugbyclub.co.uk
