Powell plotting a big finish in ‘best this league has ever been’

By BEN JAYCOCK

Coming down from the Championship, Richmond were expected to compete for promotion, but director of rugby Rob Powell says they’ve been a victim of National One’s unpredictability as they face a battle to finish in the top half.

Richmond came into this weekend in sixth with just nine wins from 20 outings, and lost 40-34 in their previous match a fortnight ago to strugglers Cinderford.

Having been head coach for the past two years – and before that defence coach for nine – Powell took full control of the London club this season and has endured a frustrating campaign.

Powell told The Rugby Paper: “We’re not quite where we want to be. We’ve got 12 try bonus points which is good, and seven losing bonus points, which if we turned into wins we’d be higher up the league. As this team develops, the aim is to finish the season as strong as possible.

“We’ve had some really outstanding perfor mers; Jake Monson is a young player that came into the team a couple years ago and is running the lineout. We’re blessed in the back-row that we have a lot of good players like David Massey, who has been outstanding. Luc Jones has been very good at 9 and Alex O’Meara has been dangerous at full-back. The team now is very different to the the start of the season because of the number of injuries we’ve had.”

Players and coaches have lauded this season’s National One, arguing it’s the best it has ever been, and Powell’s troops have been taken aback by the quality and competitiveness of the competition.

Tough run: Rob Powell

He said: “It’s more competitive than the last time we were in the competition (2019/20).

“When we were here last time there were two or three teams at the bottom that couldn’t get many points at all.

“There were five or six games you knew you’d win, and was more about how many you’d win by, but this season it’s been completely unpredictable which is great for the general public but not for coaches. Every week you can throw the form book out the window because you don’t know who’s going to win regardless of it’s top against bottom.”

It doesn’t get any easier for Powell’s side with only one of their five remaining games against sides below them in the table. Powell added: “We’ve got a tough runin so we’re going to have to be on it every week. Rams, Chinnor, Moseley and Plymouth are four out of the top five then we finish against Sedgley Park, who’ve been really good this season as well.”

Rising star: Richmond’s Jake Monson