ON A cold evening at the Athletic Ground, Richmond struggled to find any momentum as they fell to defeat to Loughborough Lightning.
This Round 7 clash was meant to be a day of celebration for the home side as experienced flanker Libby Povey marked 50 First XV caps, but it was the visitors who opened the scoring in the seventh minute with scrum-half Jennifer Maxwell running away to score. Her try was unconverted but Loughborough had all the early momentum.
Richmond tried to force their way into the match and had passages of strong attacking play, with the likes of Hallie Taufoou and Hannah Duffy proving tough to tackle. But ten minutes later the visitors were over again, this time England captain Sarah Hunter touching down from close range.
With the conversion unsuccessful, Richmond again looked to regain control but a string of mistakes and turnovers gave Loughborough plenty of territory and attacking possession.
Loughborough's third try came in the 35th minute with lightning quick winger Rachael Woosey diving over in the corner to score.
Two minutes later she was over again with a lovely dash down the wing to extend the visitors' lead.
Despite the 22-0 deficit at half-time and with the temperature dramatically falling, the Richmond supporters continued to urge their team on.
But again the visitors started to claw back control of the fixture with Katy Daley-Mclean dominating proceedings at fly-half as Woosey ran down the wing for her hat-trick try.
The final score of the afternoon came when winger Rhona Lloyd zoomed through to score an excellent solo try.
