The cold and wet conditions at the RAA on Sunday didn’t dampen Richmond’s spirits as they racked up a whopping 13 tries against Team Northumbria.

A brace for Fran Matthews, Alice Richardson and Claire Allan and a hat-trick from new England U20s squad member Kay Wilson were amongst the many scores of the day.

Matthews’ score just inside 5 minutes set the tone for the rest of a game in which an experimental Richmond squad tore apart the visitors. She scored again just 5 minutes later and could have added more to that tally but a muscle strain caused her to limp off at 10 mins.

Richmond played another England U20s newcomer, Fi Davidson at 9. Debuting for the Richmond 1s and playing out of position having recently moved up to flank, Davidson slotted into the backline well.

Captain Amy Turner gave fresh blood to the backs as she played at 13 for the first half while regular wing Fiona Pocock went to fullback.

Despite these changes the backline flowed well, making great use of clean ball provided by a pack that was also missing 2 of its starting players, both from the back row.

They swallowed any Northumbria attack easily and their efficiency at the breakdown created numerous overlaps around the park.

Richmond exploited these overlaps with plenty of wide tries and more would have been scored if not for the excellent defensive work of Northumbria’s Mel Berry who showed superb pace and made some fantastic hits.

Her pace was equalled by the visiting stand-off who put the only points on the board for Northumbria when she took advantage of a Richmond knock-on and scored in 27 minutes.

Errors will come in games like these when teams exploit the situation to try inventive, creative play, but they were few and far between for Richmond.

They easily got the bonus point they were after to retain their place at the top of the Premiership.

A tough away game to Worcester next weekend will challenge whether they can keep that place as they go into the Christmas season.

Scorers: Richmond: Tries: F Matthews (5mins, 10m), Richardson, (20m, 73m), K Wilson, (25m, 28m, 55m), R Burnfield, (31m), F Pocock, (38m), C Allan, (50m, 79m), E Layland, (68m), L Jenkins, (77m). Conversions: A Richardson, (10m, 20m, 38m, 73m, 77m) Northumbria: Lucy Milland, (27m)

Richmond Squad: F Pocock, K Wilson, (replacement O Davies), A Turner (c), (rep R Burford), A Chamberlain, F Matthews (rep C Allan), A Richardson, F Davidson (rep A Turner), A Butler (rep B Singleton 70m), E Layland, V Cornborough, S Anastasi, M Houle, L Jenkins, W Howman, R Burnfield.