Richmond 40 v 10 T Birds
For a T-Birds team still bruised and battered from last week’s playoff, this Senior Cup fixture was probably a game too far, but it gave an important indication of where the team are in relation to a current top Premier League Club. Richmond finished second in the Premiership table despite beating Champions Saracens home and away, so this was always going to be a tough afternoon.
The lack of international players on a 6 Nations weekend hurts Ts much more than Richmond, but despite the 10-40 score line, Ts competed in all areas of the game and this performance gives much hope to their prospects if they manage to beat Aylesford on the 29th March and regain their Premiership status.
Ts makeshift backline could not cope with the Richmond combination of 13 Pocock, 14 Ball and 15 Davies, whose pace ran the T-Birds ragged and collected six tries between them. However, Ts power game, even when nowhere near their swashbuckling best, gave, Richmond problems all afternoon and resulted in fine trys for Baker and Cook.
Ts were reminded of some valuable lessons of how different a Premiership team is from a Championship team, and hopefully they will take this on board before the Aylesford game.
Team: Francis, Radford, Harvey, Hepper, Franklin, Nojoko, Cook (T), Jonga, Nichols, Mountjoy, Jordan. F, French, Baker (T), Vazi, Phelps . Rep: Convoy, Wheeler, S. Jordan
