Lichfield 0 – 27 Richmond

The icy weather of recent weeks almost played havoc again at the weekend when Richmond travelled to the midlands to face mid table Lichfield in their first game of the New Year. On a damp pitch and with intermittent icy rain, the southwest London team faced who they believe to be some of their biggest adversaries in the Premiership this season.

Lichfield had nearly a full compliment of their international players, with only Sarah Hunter out through injury while Richmond also had near to a full squad with just Jo O’ Sullivan missing due to Ireland camp and Susie Brown in the reserves as she comes back from an operation.

It was a slow start for Richmond who scored just 5 points in the first half with a try by flyhalf Alice Richardson. And this despite setting up camp in the Lichfield 22 for a good half hour. Solid Lichfield defence forced errors from the visitors but Richmond’s frustrations at the scoreboard created their own problems and it wasn’t until they settled down that they crossed the try line.

Lichfield came out fiercely in the second half, but superb Richmond defence stopped their attack and despite a 10 minute onslaught right on the try line the score remained at nil points for the home side. It was a hard slog by Richmond but showed just how well they’re gelling as a team, regardless of the fact that the last time they played together was in December.

It was another fantastic team performance by Richmond with Row Burnfield, Laura Jenkins and Becky Essex working seamlessly as a back row. They tirelessly stole lineout after lineout from Lichfield while the pack worked superbly together and demolished the Lichfield scrum.

It was another stellar performance from the backs too with tries from Rachel Burford, Fran Matthews, Kay Wilson and another from Richardson. Matthews scored a breathtaking try when she scooped up from a kick ahead, but Wilson’s try was the one of the match when she took a high kick inside her own 22, offloaded to Fiona Pocock, supported her downfield and scored from an inside pass.

Another 5 tries and another bonus point for Richmond. The Sarries game remains the only match they haven’t scored a bonus point from and they are now 5 points clear at the top. General sentiment from the team is that they look very strong for the rest of the season but those feelings will have to be put on hold for a 6 Nations campaign which is right around the corner. For a team loaded with internationals we can only hope they all come back relatively unscathed and raring to go for the club.

Scorers: Richmond: Tries: Richardson, (31mins, 80m), Burford, (47m), Wilson, (53m), Matthews, (62m) Conversions: Richardson, 1.

Richmond Squad: F Pocock, F Matthews, A Chamberlain, R Burford, O Davies (rep K Wilson, 40m), A Richardson, A Turner (c), A Butler, E Layland, V Cornborough, M Houle, S Anastasi (rep S Brown), R Burnfield, L Jenkins, B Essex.

Story by Aoife Hogan