Prior to that they dominated a 36-22 home win against high-flying Plymouth Albion, but had lost 21-17 at Blackheath and more surprisingly 24-7 against visitors Cinderford.

At the end of the first block of fixtures, Richmond grabbed a fine 24-15 success at Sale, having been stunned 34-24 at The RAG by Darlington Mowden Park seven days before.

Wins against Leicester Lions (35-22), Bishop’s Stortford (50-40) and Taunton Titans (29-14) followed two defeats to start the campaign versus visitors Rosslyn Park (31-24) and on the road at Sedgley Park (32-31), Richmond having built up seemingly dominant leads in both.

Players to Watch:

Alex Post – Captain and hooker leads the try-scoring charts for the Londoners with 10 to his name so far.

A Hong Kong international who scored a hat-trick against South Korea to help his country win the Asia Rugby Championship for a fourth year in a row in the summer, he is also a Varsity-winning Oxford University Blue.

Luc Jones – Ex-Harlequins and Dragons scrum-half is in his third spell at the RAG, having originally joined in 2017.

Switched to Jersey for a season before returning, and made his way back to Richmond having been on the books at Rosslyn Park last term.

Sean Kerr – Harlequins loanee is happy at either inside or outside centre and is Richmond’s second top point-scorer this season, having racked up 48 so far (one try, 17 conversions, three penalties).

Educated at Whitgift, he is an England age-group international at a number of levels.