Rugby woes continue for Richmond RFC, but the clouds hanging over the club have a silver lining. A beautiful day in Richmond would turn out to be a frustrating one for the club. The second division squad found itself consistently behind all afternoon until three quarters of the way through the second half when they were able to tie the score at 10-10. The team had opportunities throughout the game but continuity between backs and forwards was a little off today and they were unable to capitalize on the good play that they did have.

The first division also had its share of problems, the main one again being the fact that they were constantly having to claw back from a deficit. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that they also had to deal with Seattle’s hard running forwards, the result being many missed tackles. Seattle’s veteran fly-half also proved problematic as he helped the backs probe past the gain line with play calling and kicking. Richmond, in typical Richmond fashion however, didn’t give up. After about 20 minutes, with good hard running in the centers, they were rewarded with their first score from Mike Marquardt. Offensively Richmond ran and kicked well for most of the game, only a couple of ill-timed runs led to problems from Seattle. The final score for the 1st division was 44-25. So where is the silver lining you ask? The bright side is that the squad playing today had only seven players from last years B.C. finals team. The rest are currently injured, work committed, or at the world cup and will be back shortly or in time for the second half of the season. Again you may ask how this is a silver lining. This means we currently have a number of individuals stepping up from second division to hold their own in the 1st division squad. In reality we had 6 players on the squad who were in the 3rd division 2 years ago, an impressive achievement.

And finally, after a year and a half hiatus, the 3rd division squad will again be a fixture of the Richmond Club. They will currently be playing an exhibition schedule for the remainder of the 1st half, some games on Saturday and some games on Sunday. The first being October 16th at Wolfson fields against UBC. Those interested in playing and avoiding training need only send me an email for the info on the 3rds.

Stayed tuned for further information by going to the website at www.richmondrugby.ca.

Next weeks games will be at home against Surrey @ 1:00 and 2:30.

U-19’s in Kamloops Oct 22

U-17’s at United Oct 23

U-18 girls at Home to Brit Lions Oct 23