Due to postponements and poor weather, we were forced to play this, our last league game, on a Friday night so everyone could post a result and get something from it.

We lost several players due to it being the start of the weekend and some for other reasons, so we arrived with 21.

The game started well enough, although we quickly allowed them to run in for a try where our tackling was suspect again. Considering that Richmond were a League 2 side last year, Vandals did extremely well to contain them and prevent them scoring and a large period of play was dominated by neither side.
The breakthrough was almost unbelievable. Richmond penalised in our 22 for sealing off in the ruck, a quickly taken tap penalty by James Gulliver who carved his way past every defender without being touched and went the whole pitch to score. Back in it, game definately on!

Richmond managed to break away from a ruck and move the ball quickly to their winger who went over to make the score 14 - 5 when it was converted.
The restart was another period of several minutes of stalemate where neither side dominated. A scrum resulted in Richmond stealing the ball and again it went to the winger who made good ground before a last ditch tackle by James Shaw but they followed up and their #5 took the ball over for another converted try.
Straight from their restart, the ball was well taken by Will Rawding who looked for the support player coming through. A pop pass to James Gulliver and he was away again, going the full length to score. Score now 21 - 10 and Richmond looked on edge. It was not going to plan and as the game restarted, errors crept into their handling and decision making - they were looking for the oncoming rush of Vandals players. If we could have kept up the pressure and scored, it would have been a different ending. Unfortunately, although there were great periods of quick handling and interchanging of ball carriers, we made a small error near the line each time, turning the ball over in the contact or knocking on with the line at our mercy. We managed one more score from Ronan Whilton whose determination to reach their line carried him through the weak tackles.
It was not to be our day and, eventually, Richmond's strength told and they score 2 more tries which were both converted to give a final score of 36 - 15.

The game was played in great spirits by both sides and the Richmond Chairman made sure that the Vandals boys were commended for their performance and determined play. He stated that this was their closest game for the season and he was as worried as the rest of their parents that a Vandals fightback was on the cards!

Again, we left more of an impression with the opposition than just the scoreline.

A massive congratulations for such a great display against very strong opposition.

Man of the match most definately goes to James Gulliver. Stunning display again.