Richmond 38—17 Lichfield After featuring prominently in last weekend’s hat-trick win over New Zealand at Twickenham Stadium, Richmond and Lichfield’s England stars returned to club rugby and harsh reality: a long list of unavailable teammates who had picked up injuries during the Autumn Internationals and relegation to a side pitch because of a re-arranged men’s fixture.

The home team opened the scoring after just eight minutes with winger Holly Myers touching down after Richmond’s back line moved the ball from left to right and back again in the Lichfield 22. Alice Richardson converted, 7-0.

As the game progressed, Richmond began to dominate territory. Building on some excellent work by a strong Richmond forward pack, fly-half Richardson fought to gain control using both her outside backs and excellent probing kicks behind the Lichfield defence, but a series of handling errors and relieving penalties made it difficult for Richmond to sustain pressure.

The Lichfield defence was finally breached again when a long pass from Richardson found Jackie Shiels with winger Sophie Nicholas outside her and only the last defender to beat. Nicholas made no mistake in converting the overlap; 12–0. As half time approached, Richmond continued to dominate with debutante Geraldine Rae rampaging over the line from ten metres out after picking up a short pass from Richardson. Try converted 19–0.

Lichfield started the second half brightly and began to stretch the Richmond defence with some promising attacks. The visitors were helped by Richmond’s high penalty count, ultimately resulting in a lineout on Richmond’s 5 m line from which second-row Emily Braun forced her way over after a couple of quick rucks. The try was converted by Emily Scarrett, 19–7.

The Lichfield score seemed to strengthen Richmond’s resolve and they responded by scoring two quick tries, a second each for Rae (24–7,) and Myers (converted by Richardson, 31–7).

Lichfield were undeterred and again began to put pressure on the Richmond defence, which was ultimately rewarded by a try for Cerys Williams taking the score to 31–12. Again, Richmond responded in a move that started with a scrum wide on the left and finished with Nicholas sprinting over in the right corner. Richardson converted from the touchline, 38–12.

The final score of the game was the product of some classy Lichfield back play finished by centre Vicki Johnson, undoubtedly the best try of the match and one that wouldn’t have seemed out of place last weekend on the hallowed turf at Twickenham! The match finished 38-17.

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