However, captain George Graham was forced to watch from the sidelines as the Maroons’ dreams of an historic league and cup double were dashed after injury struck.

He returned to the fold to lead his side out for their league opener against Ayr at Millbrae on Saturday after a summer of strength and conditioning in the gym.

And, having scored Gala’s opening try with less than 60 seconds on the clock, he revealed he was keen to make up for lost time.

Graham said: “I don’t like missing any games and then to see us get beat when I was on the sideline it was not nice at all. I’d have rather stayed at home to be fair.

“I’ve been training hard through pre-season, I’ve been in the gym, and we’ll be looking to make up for it this year.

“We were upbeat after today, I know we got beat but in the first half we didn’t play anywhere near we could and then second half we showed glimpses of it. And to ship 28 points against Ayr, you would be lucky to win on any day of the week.” Despite losing 28-24, Gala still returned home with two bonus points - one for scoring four tries and the other for losing by fewer than seven points.

Graham said: “It was the start of the season so I think both teams were rusty. It was Ladies Day in Ayr so they had a good crowd and they got the better of us in the first half. It was a good round for both the teams to start the season, just we came out on the wrong side unfortunately.

“We’ve done well to get 24 points. Ayr have got a really good side, so to keep up with them when we’re not playing that well, we know we’re there or there about.”