Richmond 21 Barnes 32

The visitors were ahead inside the first minute when Gower kicked a penalty, but Richmond began to settle down with skipper Henry Head energised by his week off.

Barnes had two players sinbinned in quick succession but, with the visitors doing their best to break up play, the hosts struggled to make their numerical advantage count.

Eventually, despite being held up on the line, Eamonn Atkinson managed to slip out a scoring pass for Juliano Fiori, with Matt Hart adding the conversion.

Two minutes later, Richmond were 14-3 ahead. Head stole a loose Barnes ball and Joe Brown burst through the opposition defence before off-loading for hooker Ed Rosa, who burst to the line from 20m.

But Barnes still didn’t allow Richmond to settle and a neat grubber kick through a flat home defence brought a straightforward try for the powerful Jonathan Joseph, Gower adding the conversion.

Then, after Guillaume Schueller was penalised for coming over the top, Gower kicked a penalty to reduce Barnes’ half-time deficit to 14-13.

Richmond were again slow out of the blocks after the restart and a wayward kick set up the initial momentum as Gower hit the line at pace.

With a forward looking pass undetected, Barnes stormed the 22 and a beautiful cross kick found one of the number 11’s in open space and he touched down with unhurried ease.

Gower converted well and Richmond were in trouble at 14-20.

Things just got worse as Richmond lost focus, poor decision making, an obsession with short, inaccurate chip kicks and an inability to ‘play’ the referee combining to create a thoroughly ordinary performance.

By contrast Barnes were fired up, played to their strengths and caused as much mayhem as allowed, and then more, at the breakdown.

The third Barnes try soon followed as Richmond lost possession when lined up in attack and Joseph eventually brushed off some weak tackling to touch down for a score which extended Barnes’ lead to 11 points.

Richmond fought back with dogged determination, finally scoring their third try after 23 minutes.

Andy Saunders managed to get away down the far touchline and he was well supported by Tim Cook and Matt Hart who took the scoring pass and added the conversion.

At 21-25, the momentum was with Richmond and they should have taken control of the game.

But control and composure were not in evidence and, despite Barnes managing a third yellow card, Richmond could not add to their score.

A series of short line outs should have been the ideal vehicle but Barnes were allowed to pull down and flop over at will and Richmond had no answer.

Finally a despairing and poorly judged chip was blocked, Barnes broke out of defence and scrum half Ross Blake scored Barnes fourth try to deny Richmond even a bonus point.

Richmond’s next league match is the trip to Shelford on Saturday, November 28.

Tries: Fiori, Rosa, M.Hart

Conversions: M.Hart(3)

Team: M.Hart, A.Saunders, T.Gregory, J.Brown, T.Cook, L.Cousins, T.Henry (J.Platt), D.Parkinson, E.Rosa (J.Phipps), E.Atkinson (A.Friel), H.Head (C), T.Wesley (T.Sadler), G.Schueller, J.Fiori, G.Hart.