Richmond gain the upper hand in a close fought encounter.

An even start to the match but with very few chances for either team.

There was no difference in the teams in the rucks and mauls, there was a few breakaways from us but the Richmond well-drilled defence was always there.

In the first 3rd we lost Jack Bilsland to a damaged shoulder and Chris to a pulled muscle, this after losing Dylan Saralis before the match in the warm up, so we were left with only 1 replacement player.

In the 2nd third of the match (played as a training match of 3 periods) Alton didn’t seem to have the same organisation that we started with.

The home side were quickly put in a tricky situation where we had a scrum in our own 22, which was lost and, despite an excellent covering tackle from our scrum half Beno the visitors managed to score the first try of the game. A second try quickly followed after a breakaway following a missed tackle on the right. A third score followed soon after that.

A close range score from Jack Pinto near to the posts was scant reward for the attacks made by the home side, with Cameron Wicks adding the conversion but a late score through another breakaway by the Richmond team saw the final score of the day.

Overall the boys were fairly disappointed with the result but the effort put in by all the players was not to be faulted, especially given the very warm weather and no-one gave up.

Match report by Will Hearne and Nathaniel Ward.