Henley 25 Richmond 36

They drew first blood after nine minutes when Matt Hart’s 40-yard penalty gave them a 3-0 lead.

With a clear advantage in the set scrum and domination in the lineout, Richmond gained confidence.

Given another kickable penalty, after15 fifteen minutes, Luke Cousins took a line kick and found touch deep in the Henley 22. With the line out won, the forwards duly rumbled their way forward, smuggling the ball well, and Jono Farmer got the touchdown, converted by Matt Hart.

With the precedent set, it was no surprise in the 25th minute when Richmond again kicked for the corner, following good work by Kris Greene in spoiling Henley scrum ball.

Once more the line out ball was secured and, just as patiently, the Richmond forwards worked their way to the line. Henley held the main surge, but skipper Henry Head slipped a pass out to the alert Greene, who claimed a try for the backs and a 15-0 lead, a reversal of the start against Rosslyn Park the previous week.

Richmond now started to concede penalties and Paul Trendell kicked Henley’s opening points after an offside decision.

When the Richmond defence, which had been an impressive feature of the game with their aggressive, well organised offence, faltered for the first time, Henley number eight Jack Hemmings was allowed to gather momentum and the big forward broke three tackles to score a good solo try, making it 8-15 after 34 minutes.

Richmond always appeared to have another geer and their third try was the best of the match.

Scrum-half Greene broke blind from a set scrum and passed inside to Matt Hart, who sped through the gap, drawing the tackle before passing out to Greene, who in turn set in Andy Saunders for a well worked try.

That made it 22-8 to Richmond at half-time, but Trendell kicked a penalty for Henley in the first minute after the restart.

However Richmond still dominated the set scrum, each member of the front row additionally finding time to contribute with impact in the loose.

From scrum pressure, Henley conceded another penalty and Richmond again kicked to the corner.

This time Henley held out well as Richmond mounted a succession of phases.

Allowed to pinch ball from the back of the Richmond scrum, they spun the ball down the line on a counter attack.

However Alastair Simmie, who had seen little of the ball up to then, intercepted smartly and ran 30m at pace for a decisive fourth try, also securing the bonus point. The conversion made it 29-11.

The next quarter of an hour featured some scrappy rugby and Richmond were grateful to number eight Gavin Hart for a crunching tackle as the defence was exposed.

It was Gavin Hart again, who intercepted another Henley pass, to run in at pace from 40m. Matt Hart’s conversion making it 36-11.

With quarter of an hour left, Richmond might have run up a big score, but instead they lost shape as they attempted a more expansive game.

This was not helped by the inevitable flow of substitutions, despite the welcome introductions of the lively Juliano Fiori, back from an overseas work posting, and the Argentinian hooker Federico Rodriguez, making his first team debut.

Henley never gave up and deserved their two tries in the last five minutes.

The first followed a counter attack out of desperate defence and was scored by veteran prop Rowan Fuller.

The second was scored by huge Canadian lock, Oliver Atkinson, from 5m, as Richmond failed to clear their lines from a line out. With Will Fulton converting both, the final score was closer than it should have been.

Richmond host Worthing at the Athletic Ground this Saturday (3pm).

Tries: Farmer, Green, Saunders, Simmie, G.Hart Conversions: M.Hart (4) Penalties: M.Hart Team: M.Hart, A.Saunders, T.Gregory, J.Brown, A.Simmie (D.West), L.Cousins, K.Green (T.Henry), A.Lyon, J.Phipps (F.Rodrigues), E.Atkinson (T.Nutall), H.Head, T.Wesley, J.Farmer, G.Hart, T.George (J.Fiori).