With Scottish rugby fans willing their team to success at the Rugby World Cup in France next month, Livingston Rugby Club will be celebrating early with the official opening of their new changing rooms tomorrow.With Scottish rugby fans willing their team to success at the Rugby World Cup in France next month, Livingston Rugby Club will be celebrating early with the official opening of their new changing rooms tomorrow. Supported by a Lottery award of £153,455 from sportscotland, the four new changing rooms at Almond Park are an extension to the existing stand at the club and also include a referees’ room, equipment store and a fitness room. The new facilities were required to ensure adequate changing facilities were available when the club’s two pitches are in use. In addition visiting teams will no longer have to share changing rooms and different age groups and female participants will have access to separate changing facilities. Livingston Rugby Club was established in 1968 and moved to its current site in the early 1970s. It has a thriving membership of over 600, with around 20 qualified coaches working with all levels of players. The club is committed to growing the game of rugby through the development of children’s rugby skills from an early age. To facilitate this, the club has appointed a rugby development officer to give local primary and secondary children the opportunity to take part in rugby at school and hopefully encourage them to carry on playing as part of the club. In addition, the club run an annual rugby festival programme attracting over 1000 local schoolchildren. Andy Thorn, the Livingston club’s president, said: We’re delighted with the new changing rooms that wouldn’t have been possible without sportscotland’s support. It provides our players from ages five upwards with a high quality changing facility next to the pitches, allowing them the appropriate environment to enjoy participating in rugby. Julia Bracewell OBE, Chair, sportscotland said: sportscotland is delighted to have supported the creation of the new changing rooms at Livingston Rugby Club with a Lottery award of £153,455, supporting the development of rugby within the local area. We are committed to providing quality, accessible facilities for communities across Scotland and the new facilities will hopefully attract more young people into the game and see the club continue to thrive. The official opening of the new facilities will be at 1.30pm by Bob Hogarth, the Premier Three clubs’ Scottish Rugby Council representative. Afterwards, kicking off at 3pm, Livingston will take on Peebles in a Scottish Hydro Electric Premier Three match.