Livingston RFC v RHC

The Cougars kicked off their league campaign against Livingston and following a great win against PL last week, confidence was high even with a number of changes following injury and unavailability reduced us to 1 front row sub and 2 replacements in total.

The game started brightly with young Ewen Cullen, one of 4 guys straight of last years school 1st team playing, winning a penalty in the first minute which Happy converted for a 3-0 lead. Unfortunately we then lost Steve McEwan who had answered the front row call to play after the first scrum and with only a hooker replacement, we had to go unopposed for the remainder of the game. Although Livingston may have felt they had the edge in the scrum with a big pack of forwards, the fact they now did not have to work at scrum time benefited them in terms of fitness.

Shortly after that we again worked an number of quick rucks and offloads to win a penalty in the livi 22. Happy applied the finish for a 6-0 lead.

Unfortunately from the kick off we conceded a penalty and from the linout they forced another penalty and when they tapped quickly and moved it wide they forced their way over in the corner. A good conversion saw them snatch the lead 6-7.

The Cougars stuck to the task though and after a period of attacking plays that broke down with knock on's or turnovers, finally the Livingston defence was stretched and they conceded the penalty in front of the posts. The kick saw us regain the lead 9-7.

What followed was mixture of bad luck and poor defence from the cougars to concede 2 fairly quick scores. Having cleared to the livi 10, their 15 tried to kick long but the ball hit the oncoming RHC player and deflected straight to one of their players who was well behind play. With the ball landing straight into his arms he suddenly found himself in behind the defence and 2 passes later their winger was in at the corner for a lead of 9-12.

Their next score just before half time came after Livi stole a linout and running at a defence that was back expecting possesion, couldn't recover and good hands and a few dummies saw them again in for the score. With the conversion good it finished 9-19 half time.

Things looked better from the start of the second half when their 7 was yellow carded for taking out Paul Strachan off the ball when he was a dummy runner. But with a man advantage, we managed to give away 2 soft scores which gave Livingston what looked a winning lead 9-33.

With half an hour to go though the boys started to play the rugby they are capable of. After a period of pressure on their line a pick up from the base by Reeno and a pass to Mikey Scott saw him feed Chris Mac on the wing to squeeze in at the corner. We missed the kick from the touchline and the score was 14-33.

After a short period of play the cougars broke again from their own 22 through a nice break from Happy and he fed Luca Vita who made good ground to the Livi 10 metre line and was only stopped when the pass went to touch. The cougars were now retaining possession and fitness was starting to tell with Livingston forced to scramble more and more. Following another penalty conceded they tackled RHC without retreating to the try line and conceded a penalty try which was converted and suddenly we were back within a couple of scores at 21-33.

With a real sense of urgency the Cougars entered the last 10 looking for quick tries and maybe forced it a bit with a number of good moves breaking down when the score looked on. With time ticking away the Cougars won a penalty 15m out and a quick tap and a lovely kick pass from Happy across the 22 to Chris Mac saw him dummy and step inside and go over near the posts. Happy converted to secure the bonus point at 28-33 but unfortunately time ran out.

A good fight back saw us at least secure a losing bonus point but that middle 20 minutes when Livingston scored 3 easy tries was the difference. Again a few knocks to players will need to be assessed this week but hopefully also a few players will be back in the mix having been away last week or injured for a big trip to West of Scotland this weekend.