Rob Powell’s side made the trip to Bristol to face recently promoted Dings Crusaders in Round 6 of National 1. Before the game Richmond sat 2nd in the table and Dings Crusaders were positioned 10th.

Dings Crusaders were the first to put points on the table after 5 minutes as Bristol Bears centre, Deago Bailey, made a break from halfway and scored under the posts to make the scoreline 5-0. The conversion was missed by fly-half George Boulton. In the 11th minute, Richmond won a penalty from Dings dropping body height whilst in contact and Callum Grieve slotted the kick to make the score 5-3. Shortly after this in the 15th minute, a misplaced pass from Richmond led to Dings winger, Solomon O’Brien-Taufa racing through to dot down making the score 10-3, conversion was successful from Boulton making the score 12-3. In the 29th minute, Lucas Schmid putting in another strong performance made a powerful break off a lineout by the Dings 22m line and he made a great offload to Alex Schwarz who made a neat finish in the corner. A fantastic conversion from the touchline by Grieve who made the score 12-10. In the 33rd minute, again from another lineout set piece, brilliant in the maul from the pack, Schwarz offloaded to Chidera Obonna who managed to break through three defenders and score. The conversion was successful from Grieve again to make the score 12-17 and Richmond were ahead for the first time in the game. Just before half-time in the 38th minute, Tomas Gwilliam scored off the back of a driving maul, the conversion was missed and the whistle blew to make the scores level at 17-17 at half-time.

Dings started the second half strongly with their no.9, Sam Edwards, darting through to score in the 42nd minute, conversion was successful from Boulton making the score 24-17. In the 60th minute, Edwards dotted down for his 2nd try of the game off the back of a maul, conversion was successful making the score 31-17. Instant impact from substitution Luc Jones who came on and delivered an outstanding performance, scoring in the 72nd minute with a snipe from the back of a ruck, conversion was successful from the ever-reliant Grieve to make the score 31-24. In the 76th minute, Will Goffey scored from the back of several strong attacking plays and the conversion was successful from Grieve to make the score 31-31.

Overall, a strong performance from Richmond who came back from being 31-17 down with less than 10 minutes to go and take 3 points from the game. Rob Powell’s men will hope to carry on this unbeaten run going into their match next week where they welcome Leicester Lions to the Richmond Athletic Ground for a 3pm kick-off on Saturday. Richmond remain 2nd on 26 points and Rams stay top on 29 points after their tight victory away to Bishop’s Stortford.

Tries: Schwarz, Obonna, Jones, Goffey
Conversions: Grieve (4)
Penalties: Grieve

Team: O’Meara, Rogers, Case ©, Grieve, Obonna, Dennett, Schwarz, Bevacqua, Torpey, Spring, Monson, Nugent, Schmid, Wakeling, Pim

Replacements: Goffey, Freeman, Woollard, Jones, Dardis