Another bittersweet result for the Men’s 1st XV last time out, going down 21-41 to league leaders Oundle, after leading at half-time 21-19. This season is proving to be very tough indeed for our Men, currently languishing in 12th place in National League 2 East, I don’t think we have ever lost 4 in a row in this league and it just goes to show the standard of rugby. At this stage of the season, we can see that there are simply no easy games, and it doesn’t get any easier with a trip to Havant on Saturday, who turned us over at their place at the end of last season in a rip-roaring game. They will fancy their chances against a Barnes side who have shown glimpses of our ability, but who has failed to maintain that required level for a full 80 minutes. It will come, we need to be patient, but we have the talent and it will shine in due course!
The shining light last weekend was the Outriders, who maintained their good start to the season with an outstanding win against Wimbledon 2nd XV 19-24, surviving intense pressure on their line at the death to secure a memorable victory.
Both match reports are below for your delectation.
This weekend sees a full set of fixtures, starting on Friday night as the Originals resume battle with Richmond Heavies in their first outing of the season. On Saturday, Saturday the Men’s 1st XV travel to Havant and the Outriders are away at Cobham.
On Sunday it is the turn of our Women as they field two sides, the 1s are away to East London Ladies and the 2s are at home to Wasps. As they are the only home adult side this weekend let’s turn up in force and support them please.
Good luck to all our teams playing this weekend – onwards and upwards Barnow!
Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club
A BIG Barnow weekend of fixtures ahead, here are the details!
Friday 9th October Fixture
• Richmond Heavies vs Barnes Vets - 7:30pm KO
Saturday 10th October Fixtures
• Havant Men’s 1st XV vs Barnes Men’s 1st XV - 3pm KO
• Cobham vs Barnes Outriders - 3pm KO
Sunday 11th October Fixture
• East London Ladies vs Barnes Women’s 1st XV - 2:30pm KO
• Barnes Women’s 2nd XV vs Wasps - 2:30pm KO

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 21 - 41 Oundle Men’s 1st XV - words by Rhino

Saturday’s loss to league leaders Oundle promised much in the first half, leading as we were at the break 21-19, but a combination of injuries, yellow cards and the relentless grinding down by the accurate and well drilled Oundle machine proved too much and we lost 41-21 without adding any further to our total score. Oundle looked nailed on to win the league already after only 5 games of the season and Barnes clearly have work to do to reverse our fortunes. There will be no easy games in the league this year, and next week sees us travel to Havant, who will be confident of a win at home on their fast track, having already beaten Dorking and Leicester, although they too lost on Saturday against Canterbury.

Barnes did have a good first half, taking the game to the visitors with pace and energy. We scored three converted tries, through Joe Henry, Kristian Thomson and Brandon Baker, Oundle too scored three tries, but our defence held them up on our line with the break approaching and Barnes led at halftime 21-19.

Thereafter it was one way traffic, yes, we defended valiantly, tackling ourselves into the ground, but in the end the quality and skill of the Oundle players was too much for us as they added 22 unanswered points to their first half tally.

If we could have put Saturday’s first half performance against Oundle together with our second half display against Esher, then we quite possibly could have won both games - clearly that is pure fantasy but as we languish in 12th spot in the league you take what ever you can get right now!

Battersea Ironsides 19 - 24 Barnes Outriders – words by Chris Williams
The Outriders won a fiercely competitive tie against an extremely strong Battersea Ironsides 2nd XV away from home. This was the third win on the bounce for an Outriders team that is growing in confidence and stature.

Ironsides went up by two tries early in the first half, with a formidable looking back line.
It looked like it was going to be a long and punishing 80 minutes. However, the Outriders dug in and worked out a way to get over the white-wash with a driving maul from a line-out. Battersea scored a well-worked try with a chip over the top, early in the second half to take a 19-10 lead. Both sides had what looked like certain tries disallowed due to foot in touch.
The Outriders clawed back to 19 - 17 with another line out and maul. The Barnes RFC crowd thought that hope evaporated when a short pass was spilled 5 metres out with 3-minutes remaining. However, a minute later, skipper Jake Shaw - at first receiver - saw a gap open up in front of him, sprinted through, beat the last man, and scrambled over to score what looked certain to be the winning score, with the easy conversion.

At 19-24 with 60 seconds left on the clock, the Outriders just needed to receive the kick and keep it tight.

After two phases, the nine was instructed to clear with a box kick, with a “no pens” instruction.
Quite unbelievably, our right winger took out the catcher in the air and Barnes saw themselves staring into the abyss.

At least 5 penalties ensued and Barnes defended for their lives on the 5-metre line.
It seemed inevitable that the Barnes defensive line would be breached, but a knock-on at the fringes signalled full time and the Outriders and big support group went wild.

Man of the match, a man mountain, was Joel Clifford in the second row.