Valkyries chalk up first win against new look Richmond

• Like
• +1

In round 2 of the Women’s Premiership, Richmond played Worcester Valkyries at home. Both teams were coming off the back of a defeat in the opening weekend, which meant the two sides fought hard to get the win.

Richmond welcomed back Alex Matthews to the back row, playing 30mins on her return from injury. She immediately made her presence known; making line breaks and picking the ball well off the base of the scrum, directed by sister Fran at scrum half.

The lineout functioned well for Richmond, providing good ball to Fran Matthews who was able to make breaks through gaps in the defence on several occasions.

Despite an excellent turnover in Worcester’s 22 in the opening exchanges of the game, Richmond conceded a penalty which eased the pressure on Worcester. After being handed possession, they took a quick tap and scored an unconverted try down the right wing.

Another Worcester try from Courtney Gill followed when she burrowed over and the game was on. Richmond responded with a turnover at a lineout to launch a strong phase of attack. Fly-half Tamsin Barber saw half a gap and took it and some quick passing down the wing brought Richmond right up to the scoring zone.

The Richmond pack then decided to have their say and executed a driving maul from a lineout excellently. Walking Worcester back over their own try line, Worcester couldn’t stop the momentum and Richmond got their first try of the day on the board.

Worcester came out of the blocks to score first in the second half but Richmond regrouped and launched waves of attack. Emma Croker carried the ball well, making line breaks and constantly posed a threat.

Worcester halted the next Richmond attack, illegally, after strong carries from Claire Phelps and Sam McCarthy. Worcester’s centre was shown a yellow card for side entry at the ruck.

Although they were a player down, Rachel Lund demonstrated some nifty footwork and pace to score Worcester’s bonus point try.

Showing real guts and determination, Richmond got some more points on the board after a well worked move off the scrum, which resulted in Richmond’s player of the match Ro Burnfield linking up with centre Alicia McComish and some slick handling saw Burnfield touch down for try.

Despite some dogged defence for the last 10 minutes of the game, in the last play, Worcester denied Richmond a losing bonus point when Ceri Large made a break over the gain line and got the offload away to her teammate in support who scored under the posts.

The final score was a hard fought win for Worcester 31-15. The new look Richmond side continue to build and have already made massive improvements on their previous performance, proving they are still an attacking threat from all areas of the pitch.

Richmond team :
1 Emily Scott, 2 Emma Croker, 3 Anna Butler, 4 Claire Phelps, 5 Sian Hobday, 6 Fran Hall, 7 Rowena Burnfield, 8 Alex Matthews, 9 Fran Mathews, 10 Tamsin Barber, 11 Katie Wallis, 12 Becky Ball, 13 Alicia McComish, 14 Kiri Lose, 15 Jade Wong