1st XV match reports

Richmond 5 London Scottish 19

Scottish duly won this most local of derbies, and took South West London's equivalent of the Calcutta Cup - the Whyte and Mackay Quaich - back to the unaccustomed surroundings of the away dressing room.

The win was richly deserved and was secured by a first half display of complete dominance and, eventually, ruthless finishing. But curiously, Scottish went off the boil at 19-0 and let Richmond run the rest of the game without ever looking like clawing back the deficit, until van Schalkwyk’s consolation score near the end.

Home supporters, never optimistic of victory, were at least consoled by the performance: Richmond played with pride and latterly no little skill, and did well to keep the score down.

Indeed, by the time Scottish finally nudged the zeros off the scoreboard with five minutes to go to half-time, it had been hard to see how the scores could still be level. Scottish were dominant everywhere, in charge at scrum and lineout, and had drawn the home side into a huge defensive effort with the pace and directness of their running, by backs and forwards, and from every part of the field; it was lovely stuff and just a curiosity that no scores had come about.

Then, like buses, along came three tries in a row … in a frantic six minute spell either side of half time during which – another curiosity here - Richmond conceded four consecutive scrums on their own put in. Three times the strike against the head lead directly to scores and on the fourth, the home front row was penalised, not for the first time, for collapsing.

It might, therefore, be assumed that Richmond’s disastrous front-row display was the difference between the sides. True, tight-head Owen Gregory cried off in the morning, and he would always be a big loss, but it was on the loose-head that Richmond really struggled throughout the game.

Partly this was because Scottish were from the start at odds with Mr Tutty, and the penalty count of roughly 5-1 against Scottish tells its own story. As often as not, these awards denied the Scots the possession and position their superiority from 1 to 15 had delivered, and for the rest of the game the visitors could be seen shaking the heads at decisions when they really needed to work out how the referee wanted the game played, and get on with it. (The game is of course much easier to play from the stands!)

Thus from the start Richmond’s scrum and lineout were under such pressure that in the opening half a dozen minutes the home side only handled the ball long enough to take the clearing penalties which kept coming their way.

Then Scottish conceded just inside their own half, but from 45m Matt Hart pulled a straight-ish attempt a little too far to the left. Minutes later when Costeloe was caught by a tackler well offside, Coleman McCarthy had a better chance but his kick too was wayward.

Next up, Scottish blew the finish to a wonderful move. Charles Broughton neatly caught a poor kick just inside his own 22, and turned and set off. Support when he needed it came first from Matt Johnson, then Stuart Sylvester before Alex Alesbrook made the charge for the line, but when he was held short and the support piled in, the ball was spilled some two metres out.

Next, Stuart Peel made a typical break through the middle, but this move was whistled to a halt when Scottish were penalised for not releasing on the ground.

Several more half chances came and went, as the home side defended doggedly against invention and pace. In all this time Jo Ajuwa had tried once to take on the Scots defence on the outside but been smothered into touch, and then been stifled in midfield before he could get away, but otherwise Richmond had been wholly focused on keeping the Scots at bay.

When, finally,  it all clicked for the visitors, the broken field they wanted to exploit came from the unlikeliest of origins.

With 35 minutes gone, Scottish made a mess of a defensive lineout, knocking the ball forward and conceding a scrum on their own 22. Presented with such an attacking position, the home pack let the ball squirt out on the Scots side, and in a trice Whelan had sent Broughton away. Rory Greenslade-Jones collected the inside pass and then fired the ball over the home defenders, for Matt Vines to collect and cut inside to score close enough to the posts for McCarthy not to be troubled by the kick.

As if to prove a point, Scottish repeated the trick from the restart. McCarthy was adjudged to have knocked on, and Richmond got set to use the position to attack, but again Chris Johnston and Stuart Sylvester wrenched the ball away. This time Whelan went open, and Peel made decisive yards before freeing Ross Yiend to cover the distance to the line, McCarthy again adding the two extras.

There was still time for Richmond to win a third scrum in more or less the same tempting spot on the Scots’ 22, but this time, for variety, the home pack pulled it down and Mr Tutty awarded the Scots the clearing penalty.

At this level players are accustomed to scrums going with the put in, so to witness two against the head at least gave the disappointingly small crowd of 1650 something to discuss while queuing for a half time beer…

Then within moments of the restart, Scottish did it again … and scored again. Clearly they were at their most dangerous receiving the put in on their own 22, because out came the ball again, and this time Alex Alesbrook picked up and fed Yiend. The tall winger kicked ahead and easily won the chase to the corner, but this time scored too far out for McCarthy.

At this point Scottish could and should have built a major score. But Richmond came at them with a controlled spell of pressure in which they earned a succession of penalties. They elected, though, to kick each one to touch, and despite getting nowhere each time with catch and drive moves, and despite also not being able to get quick enough ball to their backs, they persisted with the tactic when a couple of goals at this point might have put some pressure on the visitors.

For Richmond Seb Berti was dictating the play but despite the possession and the better of the referee’s decisions the home side never looked as if they believed they could make up the 19 point gap. Twice they came close to the line, but mostly their attacks veered from side to side, as their strike runners failed to find the angles that make them lethal against lesser opponents.

As it was Scottish held out with some ease, and even when Greenslade-Jones was binned for offering to help Mr Tutty with his decision-making, the 14 held out for the ten minutes.

However the centre was barely back from his break before Alesbrook was taking the same walk, carded seemingly after a “team” warning following another succession of penalties.  The skipper’s absence was more keenly felt – Scottish finally conceding a score to François van Schalkwyk with four minutes to go, when Richmond finally worked the numbers to create a big overlap on the right. But this was at the end of a 20 minute spell of playing with a man short.

Long before, the result had been clear, and it made for a strangely subdued atmosphere. The home crowd was resigned not just to defeat on the day but also knew at the start that promotion was pretty much a forlorn hope for this season.

For the Scots on the other hand, the final whistle occasioned more relief than exhilaration. There had been much prior anxiety – off the pitch at any rate – because of the pressure to win and keep level with Ealing and Worthing.

Footnote – once again Scottish lined up against another former junior player, this time James Grimes who played alongside Broughton for a season before gaining an Academy place at London Irish, whence he has now returned after four seasons away..

Paul McFarland