IRVINE remain winless in the league after letting slip a half-time lead at Marress.

A Ross Gilmour brace and a single try from Craig Lang, plus two conversions by James Armstrong, put the home side 19-10 in front at half time, only for the roof to cave in after the break as the visitors upped their game.

A late try by debutant Iain Allen brought the added consolation of earning the hosts a four-try bonus point, but any hopes of a second bonus point were snuffed out by a late penalty from Blair Smith.

Next up for Irvine is the long trip to Scremerston to play Berwick, who are also winless.

Irvine nearly got off to a terrible start, misjudging the opening kick-off and leaving themselves facing a defensive lineout deep in their own 22. They kept their line intact however, and opened the scoring in a fortunate manner when the ball ran loose at a West ruck and Gilmour pounced on the loose ball to race clear, Armstrong converting for a 7-0 lead in seven minutes.

Connor Turnbull was narrowly beaten to the ball on a kick play as Irvine tried to turn up the heat, before the visitors benefited from their own stroke of luck in notching their own opening try. Armstrong gave the ball away in his own half as the hosts tried to go on the attack again, and it fell kindly for centre Ross MacAulay to score in the corner.

The visitors took a deserved lead through full back Leask Carnegie after forcing a series of scrums and penalties in the Irvine half. This lead proved to be short-lived however as Gilmour crowned a nice handling move in the corner to go back in front.

Irvine ended the half strongly and Nathan Murray nearly scored after Craig Lang intercepted a loose pass and kicked on. The score had only been delayed however, as Lang crossed under the posts to give Armstrong a straightforward conversion for 19-10.

Within 10 minutes of the resumption, the nine-point lead had turned into a 10-point deficit, with MacAulay’s second try of the afternoon bracketed by scores for Cameron Thomson and Ross Carnegie. Thomson and Smith added conversions to make it 29-19.

Irvine battled, but apart from the sin-binning of Smith just before the hour for his part in a bout of fisticuffs, nothing worked and Smith rubbed salt in their wounds by scoring immediately after his return.

Thomson’s conversion took the visitors out of sight at 36-19, and Smith made sure of all five points two minutes from time after Allen’s try.

IRVINE: J Armstrong; N Murray, C Lang, N McMillan, R Gilmour; B Skipper, C Turnbull; E Callaghan, D Kirkwood, S Docherty, A Nugent, T McHarg, C Maxwell, J Carson, R Filander. Subs: C Stevenson, G Gibson, I Allen.

MARRESS are also still winless after a 44-0 defeat to their own West of Scotland counterparts, who came into the game having scored 195 points in their first two games. They next have an enticing derby match at Kilmarnock, who have lost both of their games so far.