IRVINE’s hopes of a top-half finish in the league were dealt a heavy blow as West of Scotland cruised to victory at Marress.

Irvine could have won on their visit to Burnbrae in November, but it quickly became clear a repeat performance was not on the cards as the home side failed to get out of the traps.

East Kilbride took full advantage of Irvine’s slip-up with a 22-8 victory over Dalziel at Torrance House, and could be as much as nine points clear by the time they visit Marress in a fortnight, as they play their game in hand at home to Perthshire this Saturday.

West got the bonus point victory they came for, but their efforts were in vain as Preston Lodge clinched promotion behind champions Lasswade with a losing bonus point at Hawick YM.

West were first to settle, and after the home defence wandered offside the visitors laid siege to the Irvine line from the resulting lineout.

The pressure looked to be off when they knocked on on the far side, but an Irvine error gave them the ball back and the visiting forwards rumbled up to the line from the resulting scrum, forcing a penalty which No.8 Fraser Smeaton took quickly and dived over for the opening try, which went unconverted.

West continued to look the more dangerous in attack, with Irvine generally giving the ball away whenever they got up the pitch. They eventually did get on the board however with a Lincoln Ormsby penalty five minutes from the interval.

Any hopes the hosts might have been entertaining that they had stemmed the tide were dashed as the second half got underway. They gave away a series of penalties deep in their own half, with the predictable result, Smeaton scoring a near carbon copy of his earlier try on the right to get his side into double figures.

Irvine had chances to hit back but were unable to capitalise and invariably found themselves pinned back by the tactical kicking of man of the match Ross McAulay.

This helped to turn the game decisively against Irvine on the hour, when their inability to get out of their 22 was punished by Tom Grey, the lock crossing under the posts to give kicker Blair Smith a formality of a conversion for a two-score lead.

The home side had an even bigger mountain to climb five minutes later when lock Alistair Maxwell was sent to the sin bin. Within minutes West had the bonus point try, flanker Gus Thomson doing the honours this time to round off another incisive move. Smith converted to put the visitors out of sight.

They could have gone further in front just before Maxwell’s return, when McAulay looked set to crown his display with a try only to be ruled to have taken a forward pass. Thomson then went close to a second but was ruled held up.

Irvine finally got over the West line in injury time through Taylor McHarg, before Craig Hobson was forced into touch just short on the last play of the game, but this was too little, too late.

Irvine head coach Jim Barrie could not hide his frustration after the game.

He said: “Our preparation was good beforehand, but once the whistle went I don’t know what happened. We didn’t have our set piece, which is normally a good source of ball for us - though the referee could have let more go under the conditions - and we were guilty of kicking away too much possession.

“Overall, West thoroughly deserved their victory, and we will need to improve a lot for East Kilbride in a fortnight.” IRVINE: K Matheson; N McMillan, K Lang, B Jardine, C Lang; L Ormsby, J Carson; C Mackie, B Auld, C Stevenson, A Maxwell, T McHarg, M Kirk, A Lang, R Filander. Replacements: D Kirkwood, A Nugent, V Meredith.

WEST OF SCOTLAND: L Carnegie; M Sim, B Smith, J McAulay, R Carnegie; R McAulay, H Brewster; N Fullerton, I Henderson, A Love, T Grey, J Harley, D Allan, A Thomson, F Smeaton. Replacements: S MacDonald, A Ritchie, A Fisken, S Hunter.

Steven Paton’s ninth try of the season, converted by Craig Williams, proved to be the only highlight for Marress as they had their own “bad day at the office” against their West counterparts, losing 38-7 and finishing with 15 men after needless red cards for Stuart Docherty and Martin Sneddon.

They are next due to travel to Marr and Hillhead/Jordanhill, before entertaining GHK in three weeks’ time.