Ayrshire Bulls 20

Southern Knights 29

David Morrison

at Millbrae

THE revival continued on Sunday with another convincing display by Southern Knights.

After the early-season struggles the turn-of-the-year has brought three wins in a row for Rob Chrystie’s team.

And Sunday’s victory was no more than his players deserved after producing a disciplined and determined second half to all but secure a top four finish.

The head coach said: “We are getting stronger with each game.

“There were some good moments during that match but there’s still more to come from this group of players.”

The Millbrae pitch proved testing for both packs as the surface cut up early on.

But it was the Knights who took the early initiative and forced a penalty try on the quarter hour after Ayr collapsed a driving maul close to the line.

Anything the visitors could do, though, Ayrshire showed they could do just as well.

A penalty to the corner allowed Sam Kitchin to ground the ball at the back of a rolling maul.

Ross Thomson’s conversion and a penalty a few minutes later took the hosts into the lead.

The Bulls, who had already lost a player early to a yellow card, were reduced in numbers again after David Armstrong tackled high.

And, following an exchange of penalties, it was Southern who sneaked back into the lead just before half time with an opportunist try.

A deep clearance wasn’t collected by the hosts and Grant Shiells nipped in to punt the ball towards the corner for Neil Irvine-Hess to win the sprint and touch down.

An injury to Irvine-Hess at the start of the second half held up play for around ten minutes.

Once the game resumed it was the Bulls who were on the front foot.

After several attempts, Kitchin managed to barge over for a try.

But the Knights came storming back to dominate in the closing half hour.

Conor Young restored the lead with a pick-up and drive from close range.

With 10 minutes Bruce Colvine opened up the home defence with a neat chip over the top for Fraser Thomson to dribble the ball into the path of Ciaran Whyte to score the bonus point try.

What was more impressive was the way the Knights saw out the game – certainly not looking like a team who hadn’t won a match before Christmas.

Southern Knights: F Thomson, C Whyte, J Jenkins, G Wood, P Anderson, T Galbraith, S Hutchison; G Shiells, F Renwick, E Mcquillan, J Head, A Runciman, R Knott, D Taylor, N Irvine-Hess. Reps. B Colvine, C Young, F Scott, S Gunn & I Moody.