Alfie Garside hat-trick secures win on the road

Worcester Warriors fought back from behind twice to secure a bonus-point win over Richmond in their first away game of the Elior Champ Rugby season.

The hosts went two scores ahead in the first-half, and then went ahead again early in the second period but it was Worcester who came away victorious.

The Warriors started the game brightly, with Tom Seabrook breaking through the middle of the Richmond defensive line, but the ball got bundled into touch.

Despite the strong start for Worcester, it was Richmond who took the lead with Jake Monson, on his 100^th appearance, crashed over under the posts to give his side the lead.

And the momentum stayed with the hosts, and they grabbed their second inside the opening quarter when they broke into the Warriors 22 following a line-out with the ball spreading to Greg Kitson who cut through a gap to score.

A strong kick from Louis Brown and great pressure from Seabrook forced a poor Richmond exit with the field position setting the Warriors up for their opening try when ball was looped through the backline following the line-out with Juan González giving Alfie Garside to dot down outwide.

A second nearly came minutes later but referee Henry Pearson judged the ball was held-up over the line.

On the stroke of half-time the leveller came when James Cherry picked the intercept inside his own half to race into the Richmond 22 before sending in Will Lane, with Billy Twelvetrees conversion sending the two sides in level at the break.

Richmond re-took the lead just a minute into the second half when Archie Brosch collected a kick through the Worcester line before sending in Tom Riman to score.

Worcester rang the changes introducing six substitutions within the first ten minutes of the half and were rewarded with a third try when Hallam Chapman was on the back of a motoring driving maul and dotted down for his fourth try of the season.

Garside grabbed his second of the game when Seabrook was put through a hole in the Richmond defence and broke brilliantly before delivering the final pass to Garside.

And Garside had his hat-trick minutes later after receiving an offload from Siva Naulago outwide before cutting inside and dancing his way to the try-line.

As the game edged into the final ten minutes, electric feet from Louis Brown cut through the Richmond defence before giving the final pass to González who’s finish was outstanding.

González’s try put Worcester in position to take home a bonus point, but Richmond thought they’d stolen it when flanker Iwan Coyle added his sides fourth of the game.

There was still time for some champagne rugby with Naulago taking a quick-tap penalty on Worcester’s five metre line with Louis Brown and Lloyd Williams linking-up to take the ball on the edge of the Richmond 22 with the ball finally finding Austin Wallis who finishes to move and secures the bonus-point win.

Richmond 26

T – Jake Monson 6’, Greg Kitson 17’, Tom Riman 41’, Iwan Coyle 76’

C – Callum Grieve 6’, 17’, Lewis Dennett 76’

Warriors 45

T – Alfie Garside 24’, 62’, 66’, Will Lane 39’, Hallam Chapman 51’, Juan González 72’, Will Reed 80’

C – Billy Twelvetrees 24’, 39’, Will Reed 62’, 66’, 80’

Richmond Team

15 Callum Grieve (Sam Dardis 66’), 14 Archie Brosch, 13 Paddy Case, 12 Tom Riman (Jason Baggott 66’), 11 Greg Kitson, 10 Lewis Dennett, 9 Matt Marsh (Freddie Charles 62’); 1 Theo Bevacqua (Eric Nixon 54’), 2 Will Goffey (Ben Wright 57’), 3 Luke Spring (Barnaby Vaughan 70’), 4 Charlie Bell, 5 Fred Hosking (Fergus Dick 61’) 6 Jake Monson, 7 Iwan Coyle, 8 Jared Cardew (Miles Wakeling 57’)

Warriors Team

15 Louis Brown, 14 Alfie Garside, 13 Tom Seabrook, 12 Rory Taylor (Siva Naulago 50’), 11 Juan González, 10 Billy Twelvetrees (Will Reed 44’), 9 Will Lane (Lloyd Williams 44’); 1 Cam Miell (Finn Haynes 72’), 2 Jack Dickinson (Austin Wallis 44’), 3 Ashley Challenger (Harry Wright 54’), 4 Tom Savage, 5 James Tyas, 6 Owain Evans (Tim Anstee 44’), 7 Matt Kvesic © (Hallam Chapman 44’), 8 James Cherry