Richmond 67 pts v Basingstoke 6 pts away at the Athletic Ground, Richmond Nov 10th 2007
Report by courtesy of Basingstoke Gazette.

After last week's show Stoke came back to earth with a thumping defeat to league leaders Richmond, who gave a stylish display of running rugby, scoring 11 tries in a 67-6 winning margin over Stoke.

Stoke were hampered even before the game started with late unavailability, having to re-shuffle the back line and the late arrival of several players due to heavy traffic. Adding a referee that was inconsistent with his handling of the game where 2 Stoke players were given yellow cards within 1 minute of each other and the home side infringing in the same manner with no action taken, Stoke did not have a good afternoon. What also added to Stokes woes was that during the period of only having 13 players Richmond punished them by scoring 4 tries in that 10 minute slot. Many of the tries scored came from mistakes from the visitors and the tone was set from the kick off where Stoke knocked on and from the resultant scrum Richmond should have scored only for the final pass going into touch and not to hand. The home side soon made amends when on 3 minutes they scored their first try with a superb handling movement to lead 5-0. It was not until 6 minutes that Stoke got their hands on the ball and made inroads into the opponents half. Richmond, playing with the strong wind in their favour was clinical in pushing Stoke back with raking kicks as happened on 8 minutes. A missed touch would have given Stoke a line out in their opponents 22 only to see the ball returned to 10 metres from their own line. This led to sustained pressure where Richmond should have scored at least 3 tries. Then, on 13 minutes more controversy when Lambert intercepted just on his own 22 to set off down field. As the defence finally closed him down he dived for the line to score what looked like a good try only for the ref, who was 20 metres away, to give a knock on and a scrum to the home side. Richmond duly cleared their lines back to Stoke's 22. Stoke then lost Thomas and another re-shuffle for Stoke. Sustained pressure from the home side led to tries on 18 and 28 minutes to lead 19-0. Although Stoke got a penalty on 31 through Trendell, back came the league leaders. Two tries on 35 and 43 were leaked by Stoke, one a turnover after winning a line out the second as a result of trying to run out of their own 22 and another turnover. This left the half time score 33-3.

Stoke with the wind at their backs started the second half brightly and Trendell scored a long range penalty on 42 to claw back 3 points. Stoke had a good 10 minutes until forced back into their 22 and disaster. Firstly Rob Northcote and then O'Leary were yellow carded. Like any good side Richmond made the most of the situation. They scored tries on 54, 57, 60, and 63 plus one conversion to extend the lead to 55-6. Stoke did not give up and had a purple patch between returning to a full complement and the 77th minute. During this time Stoke were awarded 4 penalties in the home sides' 22 and no action taken against any of their players - strange! Richmond finished with a flurry and scored 2 tries on 78 and 87 with one converted both of which came from turnover ball to win 67-6. Stoke never had a platform to build from in the set pieces and did not string together any phases of play. Credit must also go to the quality of play from the home side that ran the ball with pace and depth and percentage rugby and no more so than their Captain and ex Stoke player Matt Hart.

Chairman of playing Chris Cook added "That was disappointing and we have no excuses. We gave them too much respect and did not execute our game plan of getting amongst them early on and disrupt. That allowed them to settle and dictate the game. I thought Dave Jones came on and showed tremendous character and application particularly as he was such a late call up. We have to bounce back from that and we will do."

Team: Lambert, Thomas (Jones, D), Buckland, Russell, Buttle, Trendell, Lilleywhite, Young©, Folan (Oliver), Hawea, Stirling, O'Leary (Scott), Williams, Northcote (Rob), Cooper.