Livingston v Ellon

LIVINGSTON Rugby Club chalked up another impressive victory this weekend by beating Ellon at Almond Park.(Picture:- Man of the match Craig Bolan)
The West Lothian club have been on a superb run of form and that continued with a 34-20 win, which brought with it the added result of a bonus point against a side who had been unbeaten on league duty.
But Livingston didn’t have it all their own way and their dreaded injury jinx reared it’s ugly head again when Ross Neil was helped off the park 20 minutes from the end.
It was Ellon who kicked off and they took advantage of a couple of early mistakes to cross the Livi line. The conversion was good and the visitors took the lead 0-7.
Livi were unperturbed and immediately went back up the pitch. After some great work by the Livi forwards the ball was given to top-scorer Ross Neil who crossed the line for the home team. Craig Bolan nailed the conversion to draw the scores level.
Bolan later added a penalty to take the score to 10-7. Every time Livingston got the ball they looked dangerous and Ellon were struggling to cope.
Livi second row Gary Wilson made a superb break before off-loading to his captain Stevie Logan, the ball went through at least another pair of hands before ending up with Livingston flyer Jason Watt who finished in the corner. The conversion was missed by Bolan.
Livingston had Ellon under pressure and squandered a couple of opportunities before they scored their third try when Bolan crashed through from a short distance and then added the conversion to his score.
So at the half-time interval the hosts had forged ahead by 12 points and were looking comfortable at 22-10.
Livingston kicked off the second half and it seemed they were in for more of a contest.
Ellon were not helped when they missed two attempts for penalties but Livingston were proving more deadly from their dead-ball chances as Bolan steered home a penalty from nearly inside his own half. The ball sailed through the uprights to take the score to 25-10 and moments later Bolan got his second penalty to take the game to 28-10.
Then the impressive Bolan grabbed his second try of the game and guaranteed his man of the match title with a wonderful individual try, dancing through several attempted tackles before scoring under the posts. He converted to give the hosts a surely unsurmountable 34–10 lead.
Ellon answered with a penalty of their own. Then Livingston prop Scott Cantley was sin-binned for giving away a penalty close to the Livi line.
Ellon took full advantage of the numerical difference straight away with a converted try to take the final score to 34-20.
Livingston’s next game is on Saturday, October 3, at 3pm against local rivals Linlithgow at Mains park Linlithgow.

Picture:- Man of the match Craig Bolan