A tough day at the office, which started from the time of arrival and continued through the warm-up and into the game itself.

The penalty counts in this game were severe on both sides, with Ealing getting no change from the referee in the first half, but managed to tighten this up in the second.  Whereas London Scottish became complacent and at times sloppy in the second half, with one substituted player running on to the pitch when there ‘was a bit of handbags’.  The referee saw this and sent the player away to the changing room.  It all then culminated in a tip tackle towards the end of the game, which earned the London Scottish player a yellow card, who then very stupidly swore at the referee to earn himself a red card.

Ealing stuck at their jobs in the second half and made it very difficult for London Scottish to score and in the process put some really good phases together and some forceful attacks.  The London Scottish defence was resolute, however, and managed to defend their line on each occasion.

Back to the drawing board with this one.

A well-earned Man of the Match performance from David Niven.  He did not stop throughout, putting his body on the line a number of times and when he went down late in the game, got straight up ready to go again when the London Scottish physio ran on to tend to him.

Huge thanks to the London Scottish physio for stepping in to tend to the Ealing players, particularly Kavan Fitpatrick.

David Brathwaite