Richmond duly despatched bottom club, Bridgwater by six tries to three on a drizzly day at the Athletic Ground.

Bridgwater have had a gruelling season, financial difficulties depleting them of their more experienced players and their young team battled hard to the end, never letting Richmond run away with the game.

There were a number of changes to Richmond’s side with two players, Chris Jackson and Joe Clapson making their first starts and two players, Jason Phipps and Joe Brown returning after lengthy injuries.

Additionally, Frankie van Schalkwyk made a particularly welcome return from premature retirement, starting on the bench.

It was Joe Brown who featured heavily in early play, running the ball back at pace from the kick off and contributing the early momentum to the first try after eight minutes.

Richmond made good use of turnover ball, Brown, Nick Moore and Matt Hart combining to get stopped just short of the line. Flanker Peter Clarke was, as ever, well placed at the breakdown to continue the move and skipper Henry Head was lurking on the far touchline to canter over for a try and a 5-0 lead.

With the line out creaking, Richmond wasted some further opportunities but appeared bound to score their second try after fourteen minutes when David West forced his way over the try line.

However, somehow, the ball was not grounded and Richmond had to make do with a penalty in front of the posts from Matt Hart.

Three minutes later, Richmond did score their second try and it was a well worked move, as the forwards twice drove from a line out to establish position and Sean Flynn then popped a well timed pass into the hands of Alex Maclennan who had a clear run to the line. Matt Hart’s conversion took the score to 15-0.

The next try was scored by Bridgwater, Richmond now giving away too many penalties and allowing Bridgwater to work their way in to their 22.

Two scrums followed as Bridgwater pressed and they gained reward when, having probed the blindside, they ran quick ball back into the open and fly half Dominik Griffin was allowed plenty of time and space to put one of his centres in under the posts. Number eight Greg Charlton added the conversion.

Nick Moore (Laithwaites’ man of the match for the third game in succession) was Richmond’s danger man and made a number of bruising runs to find holes in the opposition defence.

However, Richmond just lacked sufficient pace or cutting edge to finish good introductory work and Bridgwater gradually picked up confidence.

Only a good cover tackle by Jackson prevented full back Will Topps from escaping down the touchline.

Increasingly there were plenty of scoring opportunities for both sides in an open game, punctuated with regular errors and turnovers.

After 32 minutes, the Richmond forwards finally used their extra weight and bulk to good effect, driving over from a line out, the powerful Darryl Marfo getting the touchdown.

And, on 40 minutes, the important fourth try followed, the deserving Moore finishing off good work by John Downey and Sean Flynn.

It was to Bridgwater’s great credit that the second half was ‘shared’, each side scoring twelve points.

Richmond started the second half confidently, setting up good positions but continuing to lack the ability to finish clinically.

The fifth try needed the intervention of the referee, Mr Harding opting to award a penalty try after the collapse of a five metre scrum.

And the sixth try, which followed a good initial burst from David West, needed debate between linesman and referee to verify that Matt Hart had got the ball down before being tackled into touch in the corner.

With the score 37-7 and 20 minutes to go, the expectation was that Bridgwater would lose heart and Richmond would run up a healthy score.

It did not happen because Bridgwater never gave up, Richmond were disrupted and distracted by changes and both sides got increasingly diverted by general ‘niggle’, especially at the breakdown.

The visitors contributed two creditable tries in quick succession against the run of play, Gavin Hancock and Jack Kohler touching down to bring the score to 37-19 with 15 minutes to go.

Whatever the possibilities at that stage, there was to be no barnstorming finish from either side thereafter and the rest of the game is extremely unlikely to stay in anyone’s memory.

Next week Richmond host Shelford at the Athletic Ground (3pm kick off) and will be keen to maintain their winning run and avenge one of their poorer performances of the season, when they were well beaten in the away fixture, back in wintry November.

Tries: Head, Maclennan, Marfo, Moore, Penalty try, Hart Conversions: Hart (2) Penalty: Hart Team: M.Hart, D.West, A.Maclennan, N.Moore (L.Cousins), J.Brown (F.van Schalkwyk), S.Flynn, C.Jackson, A.Lyon (A.Friel), J.Clapson (J.Phipps), D.Marfo, H.Head (C), T.Wesley, T.George, J.Downey (G.Hart), P.Clarke.