Man of the match, Scott Sutherland, celebrates the fine victory

Ayr recorded a memorable 28-13 win over English championship outfit, Rotherham Titans at Millbrae in front of 1500 supporters (highlights on www.scottishrugbytv.com).

The Titans took the lead practically from kick-off when Mike Whitehead made no mistake to get the visitors on the board from a penalty however, just four minutes later, a move involving Pat MacArthur, Paul Burke, Scott Sutherland and Ross Curle set up the field position for Frazier Climo to slot a 36 metre penalty to being the scores level.

With penalised infringements on either side a regular occurrence, it was inevitable that the Titans would get another shot and, eight minutes in, Whitehead added his second goal.

Despite going behind once more, Ayr reacted well with game's first try.

From the restart, Ayr turnovered the Titans. Mark Stewart then linked with Burke before Glen Tippett offered a well-weighted offload to put hooker Pat MacArthur away on an angle which left the Rotherham defence flat footed.

Climo's conversion was narrowly wide, 8-6.

The physicality of both sides provided and intense spectacle for the supporters with Ayr going toe to toe with the big men.

Ayr then stretched their lead with two Climo penalties before they began to exert their well-known dominance in the crucial collision area, with Tippett, Ed Kalman and Gordon Reid ripping ball away and Andy Dunlop regularly pressurising the Titans 10, 14-6.

The back three of Andy Wilson, Steven Manning and Grant Anderson posed continually threatened the opposition who were rarely into the Ayr 22.

As Ayr's dominace grew, so did the total as Climo clipped over two more penalties before the break, leaving the crowd buzzing after what had been a breathtaking first half performance.

Half time: 20-6

Pat MacArthur scorches through for Ayr's first

AJ Macfarlane then came on to replace Jamie Hunter and made an instant impact creating another try for the home side.

The scrum-half offered a neat chip ahead which was collected by the ever present Burke and finished off by Reid, who crashed over the unconverted try, 28-6.

The Titans made several changes for the final 20 but were unable to unpick a rock solid defence until eight minutes from time when a mazy run from full-back Ben Coulbeck saw him meander through the Ayr defence to score.

Whitehead added the extras.

The visitors then continued to batter at the Ayr 22 but there was no way through the pink and black was and the final whistle brought a huge roar from the home support who knew that they had witnessed a famous victory.

Ayr coach, Kenny Murray, said: “It was a very steep learning curve from last Sunday with only four days to prepare but every one of the squad did us proud.

"They tried to use their big men to intimidate us and get some momentum going but we showed that we can be pretty physical too. We we got on top and stayed there.

“We needed to go toe to toe with them from the start and we put them under a lot of pressure. The challenge now is to take that intensity into Scottish Premier 1 for the Boroughmuir game at Meggetland on Saturday.”

AYR team
Grant Anderson; Andy Wilson, Ross Curle, Mark Stewart, Steven Manning; Frazier Climo, Jamie Hunter; Gordon Reid, Pat MacArthur, Ed Kalman, Damien Kelly, Scott Sutherland, Andy Dunlop, Paul Burke, Glen Tippett 
Replacements
Stuart Fenwick, Hamish Mitchell, Gordon Sykes, Scott Nimmo, Greg Francis, Dougie Steele, AJ MacFarlane