East Kilbride lost on their visit to their east coast new town equivalents, Livingston, by 16-9. A small consolation was the bonus point they acquired at the end of the game, but even that was touch and go. While a few first choice players were unavailable, or arrived late to occupy the bench, there seemed no reason to think EK could not emerge the victors.

EK were justifiably confident after last week’s good win. They did not seize an opportunity to take the lead after three minutes, when Shankie – last week’s hero – missed a penalty. Early EK pressure came to naught; the key feature being the first of a number of great tackles by second row Rosie on the opposition.

EK missed another penalty, and opportunity, when Livingston carried it over their own line. A move out the backs from the scrum saw the ball turned over, with EK conceding another penalty.

EK had a steady supply of ball, despite the scrums being rather untidy for both sides. A common EK failing – not kicking (successfully) for position meant EK did not always command the territory their efforts deserved.

Overall, throughout the game, EK’s kicking from hand was dire. Numerous line kicks failed to go out, no matter who took the kick. One has to wonder if any kicking practice has been done in the last millennium. It was frustrating watching for the EK support.

EK lost through the lack of a game plan, poor composure on the ball and a lack of discipline and pace when in possession. The ref was not impressed by the EK players questioning his decisions , which (whisper it) were at times baffling. But it was quite clear - the loss was entirely due to EK’s performance, nothing to do with the ref.

Livingston were typically Livingstonian in approach – they had four key players through which they made all their moves – the No 8, scrum half, stand off and full back. The rest were pretty hapless. A cohesive EK team effort should have brought the points back to Torrance House but not today.

Livingston took the lead after a long 35 minutes (well, it felt long and pretty frustrating to the EK support) through a penalty, 3-0. Both teams tried to move the ball but neither side gelled as a unit. Livingston’s backs saw more of the ball and EK were rather passive in their tackle engagement. Half time 3-0.

After the oranges, EK immediately won a penalty which Shankie converted with a great strike. 3-3. Foolish play by Livingston saw them lose a man to the sin bin, and EK took the lead 6-3 through another Shankie penalty after 45 minutes. But the visitors were unable to capitalise on their man advantage, and were then unlucky to lose Gordon Stevenson following a heavy tackle after 55 minutes.

The game was swinging towards Livingston. The scrums were still untidy for both sides, EK’s forwards were tiring, and the EK line out was patchy, losing quite a few balls on their own throw. A Livingston line out in the EK 22 saw their stand off crash through for an easy try that was very predictable and capable of repulsion. The conversion made it 10-6 for Livingston.

EK had off flashes of good play but were unable to mount any concerted pressure. Sparky Ellison had one dazzling 30 metre run up the wing while JB Timmons came on for the injured David Maclellan. The EK Vice Captain, Alasdair Dalgleish, was justifiably yellow carded for pulling down a maul, with Livingston taking a 13-6 lead and EK with a mountain to climb.

EK were unable to assert themselves, at times they almost appeared intimidated by the opposition. There was no clear game plan and poor option choices meant they could not get back in to the match.

Under pressure in the scrum, EK conceded a penalty for offside in front of the posts, to give the hosts a 16-6 lead.

It looked as if EK had blown the bonus point for being within 7 points of the victors, but good pressure by Scott Shankie from the restart earned EK a penalty which Shankie unsurprisingly converted to make it 16-9.

It was not a great spectacle, EK need to reflect on what game plan best suits their current personnel. While they are still a young side, and should not despair, their current forward fitness levels do not support the favoured high tempo game; a few games of hard grind, and kick, kick, kick for position and to create pressure on the opposition would seem best in the short term. The key difficulty here is, thus far, they can't kick for toffee (apart from Shankie's penalty strikes).

Team: 15. David Bell; 14 Nathan Ross; 13 Scott Shankie; 12 Gordon Stevenson; 11. Craig Ferguson; 10 Robbie Greenfield; 9 Fraser Stott; 8 David Maclellan; 7 Steven Lannon; 6. Calum Aitken (captain); 5 Paul Rosie; 4 Ally Dalgleish; 3 Euan Perry; 2 Rian Anderson; 1 Chris McLellan. Replacements: Gary Thornton; JB Timmons; Sparky Ellison.
Next week: it’s a home game against Irvine, who were relegated from Premiership 3 last year. Another hard day’s work beckons.