FOR all of 40 minutes, Aberdeen Grammar looked set to give Marr a test, but after a stern talk from the Ayrshire side’s coaching team at half-time, the visitors went about the task of building on their slim half-time lead of 19-17 in earnest fashion, blowing away the Rubislaw side in the process of scoring five unanswered tries.

Assistant coach Kenny Diffenthal admitted Marr needed a reminder of the challenge they faced if they were to end up as leaders of the Premiership before the forthcoming play-offs. ”All that was needed was some tightening up, having given away two tries in the first half,” he said.

“We knew Aberdeen would come at us hard at their own place, so we turned the screw early in the second period. Two quick tries settled us down and we were able to run out comfortable eight try winners. We can now look forward to a big game with Hawick now, which is always a bit special.”

Aberdeen Grammar chairman Gordon Thomson conceded his team had been totally outplayed in the second half.”We were competing well in the first 40 minutes but an injury to prop Ross Anderson early on was a blow, while losing lock Robin Cessford for a deliberate knock on was an even worse blow for us,” he said. “During his time in the sin-bin we leaked three tries.

“But given our limited resources at the moment, I thought we did well. Had you offered me fifth place in this league at the start of the season, I would have been pleased, but now our season is over we will have a good look at where we are going next.”

Grammar took the lead in two minutes when the reliable Tom Aplin slotted an easy penalty, only to rouse Marr to score a try six minutes later through the alert Richard Dalgleish, who raced over after slick play from his fellow backs, with Gregor Paxton adding the brilliant conversion.

When the same winger kicked ahead to score his second try, a first half rout looked on the cards, although Sturgeon missed the conversion.

Grammar then enjoyed their best spell of the game, scoring after some prolonged pressure through flanker Johnny Spence, and with Aplin adding the extras, putting the Aberdeen side back in the game on the half hour mark.

Marr rose to the challenge with a third try touched down by winger Tom Steven, converted by Sturgeon, only for Grammar to have the last word of the half attributed to winger Craig Shepherd, converted by Aplin, making it 19-17 at the break.

The sharp words of encouragement from Craig Redpath and Diffenthal at the interval had the desired effect on the league leaders, prompting them to run in five more tries, including a hat-trick from No 8 Benedict Grant, although much of the credit must go to to second-rower Fraser Grant, who also helped his captain and centre Conor Bickerstaff and prop Will Farquhar get on the score-sheet.

The home side were relieved to hear the final whistle in their last game of the season, while Marr will continue to look forward knowing that they have some big battles still to contest in the play-offs.

Teams –

Aberdeen Grammar: F Sneddon; N Coe, T Aplin, C Shepherd; S Knudson, T Morrison; J Robertson, A Cook, R Anderson, R Cessford, S Renfrew, D Wallen, J Wallen, J Spence, G Ryan. Subs used: Y Almananche, A Robertson, C Ruxton.

Marr: G Montgomery; R Dalgleish, G Paxton, C. Bickerststaff, T Steven; C Sturgeon, J Preston; W Farquhar, O Rossi, C Henderson, E Hamilton-Bulger, F Grant, M Pearce, R Brown, B Grant. Subs used: J Drummond, J Harvey, G Ness, J Scott.

Referee: Finlay Brown

Man-of-the-Match: Marr second-row Fraser Grant gets the nod for his tireless effort in the tight, ball carrying and generally keeping the visitors on the move.

Talking point: Who is going to stop Marr lifting the title? While the Rubislaw faithful are more concerned about what has happened to a side who won five of their first six matches in the campaign, they can take some comfort from the fact that youngsters Fraser Sneddon, Craig Shepherd and Scott Renfrew had performances to be proud of.