Steve Hill is backing the club to make an immediate impact in its return to National League 1 this Saturday against Darlington Mowden Park (KO 3pm).

The Richmond Director of Rugby will select his final 20-man squad to travel north on Saturday tomorrow, and is confident the playing group will be ready to make a strong start to their season.

“Our players have worked very hard over the last two months to put ourselves in really good physical condition, and mentally we’re ready to go”, Steve said.

“We know we have a tough first month of rugby ahead, with three out of four games away from home. But that’s given us extra motivation to get off to a great start.”

The trip to Darlington will provide an exciting challenge for Richmond, who are coming off a convincing 38-0 preseason fixture victory over National League 2 club Esher last Saturday.

“We were really impressed by the performance against Esher. It was important to hit back strongly after the defeat to Blackheath a couple weeks ago, and I was impressed by the determination of our players”, he said.

“Darlington will be a huge challenge on Saturday. I believe they will be one of the favourites this season for the division. They have assembled a big squad and enjoy playing with ball in hand.

“We know it will be a significant test heading up there this Saturday, but we are confident in ourselves of getting the job done.”

Richmond kick-off their 2019/20 season this Saturday against Darlington Mowden Park (KO 3pm). You can follow all the match action via our Twitter.

To purchase your tickets for our first home match against Chinnor RFC on Saturday 14th September (KO 3pm), please click here.