London Scottish centre Oli Grove hopes his side get the chance to play more with ball in hand this weekend after last Friday’s backs-to-the-wall effort against Harlequins at the Stoop.

Quins were comfortable 40-15 winners in the friendly clash, despite a spirited effort by the Green King IPA Championship side, who managed to get over the line twice in the second half through Lewis Calder and Miles Mantella.

Scottish take on Richmond on Saturday at the Athletic Ground (3pm) and Grove will look to take the positives from last week into this pre-season derby clash.

He said: “We conceded a few soft tries against Quins but, for a first pre-season game against one of the best attacking sides in the country, it was a good work-out.

“They had a pre-season game the week before and I don’t think we will face many tougher challenges than Harlequins this season.

“There were a lot of positives to take from it, although we didn’t have the ball for large parts.

“We made some crazy amounts of tackles and this weekend it will be nice to get ball in hand and start putting our attack patterns in play.”

Richmond and London Scottish took part in a closely fought pre-season friendly last year that Scottish eventually won 29-14.

Grove expects a similarly stern test once again.

“It’s a local rival and it will be a good test,” he said.

“We will look to improve on last week and I’m looking forward to it. Last season, they gave us a really good challenge.

“I am not sure if they will be much changed from last year but I expect a physical challenge.

“They will want to take our scalp, and vice-versa. It’s what we need following last week.”