Another beautiful day for rugby in Richmond. With the 3rd division taking a week off, it left Richmond with an abundance of players on the sidelines for our games against the Scribes. The problem however was our front row situation. Both first division props from last week were unavailable and another had suffered a shoulder injury and could not play. So, Josh Pohlke and first year prop Isaac Payne stepped up to first division and both 3rd division props stepped up to play 2nd division.

The Scribes recently moved from 3rd division last year to 1st and 2nd division this year with their amalgamation and folding of the Rogues rugby club. Regardless of who was playing in which division, the Richmond players felt confident in their chances for 2 wins in our home opener. This confidence was exhibited in the first twenty minutes of the 2nd division game, a succession of tries, one by Graham Martin Muir, one by John Findlay, and one by Eric Woods saw Richmond go up 19-0. A lapse in focus, which invariably always seems to happen in games that are quickly getting out of hand, struck Richmond for approximately 20 minutes. While the Scribes made several attempts to cross the line, excellent defense kept them at bay. Throughout the game, the coach mentioned afterwards, the two 3rd division props, Chris Mulhoward and Alex Madelyne played outstanding in their 2nd division debut. Without going into too much detail, the final score ended up 64-0. Tries by Graham Martin-Muir, Graeme Haigh, Sean Murray, Derek Dempsey, and under-19 Geoff Girling rounded out the scoring, with Ryan Shams going 4 for 5 kicking converts.

The first division game plan was to try moving the ball into the centers and then out wide. The rationale for this came walking onto the field 5 minutes before game time. The front row, while not particularly mobile, was of significant girth. The locks were at least 6’ 5” and 6’7” and the back row was probably an average of 6’3”. The first 15 minutes seemed to go against the game plan, with the exceptions of a couple of opportune breaks in the backs and a couple of penalties. The Richmond pack tried, ineffectively, to pick and go and take trail ball through the Scribe forwards. For the next 40 minutes Richmond stuck to the game plan. Finally off of a lineout from a Scribe penalty, the ball was swung to Alex Brown who, Graham Haigh like, ran the ball across the field and popped the ball to Jagjot Dhaliwal who touched the ball down. Jagjot then hooked up with Mark Gaudrault after he made a break for his second try.  Richmond’s defense was also up to the task. The back row pressured the 9 and 10. This led to Richmond’s backline, and Mark Gaudrault in particular, being able to pick off a Scribe pass and sprint 60 yards, reminiscent of last weeks sprint against Surrey, for Richmond’s 3rd try. The final score was a nice switch pass from Jagjot to Cam Knowles at the Richmond 40 meter line. Knowles then sprinted down the field and offloaded to Alex Brown who touched the ball down for a 22-0 lead. The second half promised more of the same when, off of a free kick, that was taken quickly Cam Knowles hooked up Alex Brown and Mark Gaudrault for Gaudrault’s second try of the game. With the game seemingly securely in hand, several more substitutes were put into the game. By this time, I believe that Richmond’s forwards were running on fumes, even with the subs. The last 20 minutes was difficult to watch. Through out the game it seemed like the ref was quick to blow the whistle when the Richmond ball carrier went to ground, and this became even more pronounced when the support failed to arrive quickly enough. Fortunately for Richmond they had built up enough of a cushion, bolstered by a final try by Alex Brown, because the Scribes put 4 scores on the board before the final whistle blew. The final score Richmond 34
Scribe 22.

Next weeks games
1st and 2nd in Seattle. 3rd division at UBC