Last weekend was another of mixed fortunes for the senior club with the Men’s 1st XV being well beaten at Henley 29-12, and the Women’s 2nd XV losing gallantly to a strong Staines Swan side 51-0.

The light on the horizon was a thumping win for the Men’s 2nd XV, winning away against Henley 2’s 10-42, after some incredibly tough early fixtures, the relief was palpable, and there is no doubt we are building an excellent 1st XV squad of 50 odd players, many of whom are 1st XV calibre, can’t wait to see them develop throughout the season.
There are match reports for 3 out the 4 matches below my introduction.

This weekend we have a chocker block set of fixtures, with every adult side playing on Saturday and Sunday, the Minis, Juniors and[size=large] Colts in full cry and on Friday night we have our second evening of rugby for local schools at the old Bank of England ground in Bank Lane. We kicked that off last week with an evening aimed at girls rugby for local state schools where rugby isn’t offered today, it was a huge success, and the 2nd evening will be mixed teams from local schools, culminating on 7th October with 24 teams coming together for the third in the series - we simply couldn’t cram any more rugby into a weekend if we tried!

Our Men’s 1st XV will be looking to bounce back at home against a Sevenoaks side who will be looking to keep up their encouraging start to their debut season in National 2, and they come off a strong performance which saw them turn round a game they were losing to draw 26-26 with Dorking, who you will remember pipped us by 1 point the previous week. it will not be an easy game, but I am sure our lads will be very keen to put right the poor performance last week, I know training this week has been brutal!

Our Women’s 1st XV take on Chinnor Kites on Sunday at 3pm at Barn Elms, with their counterparts in the 2nd XV taking on Ealing Trailfinders earlier at 2pm, also at home.
This weekend sees our social teams kick off their seasons this week, the Occies back in action against London Media at Barn Elms on Saturday, whilst the old and infirmed Originals stretch their green and gold kit to the max as they travel to London Irish, the lure of great Guinness being enough to raise this rabble from their golden slumbers!
So, let’s look forward to a wonderful weekend of Barnow rugby, all played in the original spirit we so love at Barnes RFC.

Onwards and Upwards the Green and Gold!

Michael Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC

Here is a quick summary of the fixtures this weekend:

Saturday 1st October Fixtures
• Barnes 1st XV vs Sevenoaks - 3pm KO Barn Elms
• Barnes 2nd XV -
• Occies vs London Media - 3pm KO Barn Elms
• London Irish vs Barnes Originals - 3pm KO

Sunday 2nd October Fixtures
• Barnes Women 1st XV vs Chinnor Kites - 3pm KO Barn Elms
• Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Ealing Trailfinders - 2pm KO Barn Elms

Here are the various match reports in detail from last week:

Henley Hawks 29 - 12 Barnes 1st XV
Disappointment is the overriding emotion that emerged from last weekend’s trip to Henley, firstly amongst the players, who knew they had not performed, secondly from the coaches, who have worked so hard pre-season to get our game right on the pitch, and thirdly from the loyal supporters who travelled to Henley last Saturday.

Key areas we have been previously good in, particularly set piece and defence, were just not at the standard we have been achieving. Some credit obviously has to go to Henley, who have beefed up their pack considerably since we beat them soundly at the same venue in April at the end of last season. Whilst there is therefore an element that Henley’s pressure did force some of our errors, if we had played as we had in the previous three games of the season then whilst the result may have been the same, there is no doubt it would have been closer. That said, Henley thoroughly deserved to win, and as I said at the beginning of the season, they will be one of the front runners come next April.

Henley took the lead after 9 minutes 7-0 and Barnes were quickly back in contention to score through Will Lewin to pull the score back to 7-5 after 15 minutes. It took another 15 minutes for Henley to break down our defence to extend their lead to 14-5, and as Henley huffed and puffed to break down our defence again, Giles Bromley-Martin intercepted and ran 70 metres to score, with Paddy McDuell’ s conversion Barnes were back in it and went into the break 14-12 down. Having not hit our straps this was a good result. The score stayed at 14-12 until the 60th minute, both sides making basic errors, but then a penalty broke the stalemate, followed by two deserved tries as we buckled under the pressure in the scrum. The final result was a deserved 29-12 to Henley. This was one of those days where things didn’t go our way, onwards to next week’s home game against a gritty Sevenoaks side who will be well up for our clash – we will need to be on our mettle!

Reading Women 1st XV 15 - 27 Barnes Women 1st XV
Last Sunday our women's 1st team played our first league game of the season against Reading Kites. We hadn't played them for several years so went into the match unsure of the competition, but confident in our own skills and play book.

We had a tricky start to the game, with some basic handling errors by us and quick hands by Reading seeing them go 5-0 up after only a couple of minutes. However, our heads didn't drop for a second, and we put a lot of pressure on from the kick off, resulting in Reading fumbling the ball and giving us possession. We then got to work on our attacking phases, pushing Reading back, and after several strong phases through forwards and backs we got the ball out to Lily at 15, who powered through several tackles to score. 5-5.
Some more errors by Barnes following this allowed Reading in for an easy try, putting them 10-5 up. For the rest of the first half our attack was relentless, we barely gave them any ball and made good use of Sophie's boot. Our forwards were making incredible runs, with Taz and Amanda really proving difficult to tackle. Sasha managed to turn the ball over any time Reading got their hands on it. Towards the end of the second half the forwards got Sasha up in a defensive lineout, which she somehow managed to steal. We got the ball through all the backs hands and out to Lily again on the right wing for another try. Sophie converted, putting us 10-12 up at half time.

The second half saw some really incredible play by us. We went out strong, and within a couple of minutes of attacking phases no. 13 Eleanor went over. 10-17 Barnes.
Hooker Jovi was repeating her performance from our friendly, and repeatedly stealing scrums from Reading. This allowed us to keep the pressure on Reading, and we had the majority of ball in hand. A stolen scrum led to great hands by our backs, and a fantastic series of offloads from Eleanor, Zoe G, Lily and Bigland saw Eleanor go over for her second. 10-22 Barnes.

Pressure on the opposition 10 by their try line saw her drop the ball, which was snatched by Zoe J, then went through the hands out to Sophie on the right wing to score. 10-27 Barnes.
Reading got a bit more momentum up with 15 minutes to go, and a series of penalties against Barnes pushed us right back to our line and Reading eventually scored. 15-27. However, a brilliant defensive set in the last 10 minutes of the game kept them out from scoring again. Final score, 15-27 Barnes.

It as a brilliant team performance again. Our 1st team are all playing at a consistently high level, and we have a very exciting set of players at the moment. Special shout out to Julie who played her first game for the 1s, most of it with a truly impressive black eye. A great start to what promises to be a fantastic season.

Players player: Amanda
Forward of the match: Jovi
Back of the match: Zoe G

Staines Swans 51 - 0 Barnes Women’s 2nd XV
Barnes Women’s Mighty 2s travelled across to Staines Swans for their first league game of the season on Sunday. With a lot of fresh faces on the team sheet, we were raring to go as Coach Andy Pickering took the team through the warmup.

Fortunately, Swans weren’t salty about our last game against them and didn’t mention it once (but definitely more than once) as we set up on the pitch to play. It was a tough game with some very experienced players returning to the Swans line up who controlled the game well – special mention to their captain Amy who was not only their best player but also their nicest player.

Our defence was dogged and despite accumulating injuries and frustration over some of the decisions being called against both teams, I was incredibly impressed with the reserve and aggression that the team played with. The attitude of the team after the game, saying that they had wished for more time with ball in hand to take it to the opposition, speaks volumes about the character of the players who have joined us this season. We will regroup, get our heads down at training and build on the amazing things we accomplished during the game despite the heavy defeat.

We were so happy to have a few returning faces in the Barnes line up, with the one and only Lucy Baz Barron joining in after a spell away over the summer. And it was a huge return, her defence was exceptional, and she most certainly earned her forward of the match pint. Our favourite (second) rower was back in blistering form too, fresh from her injury rehab, as Bethan (now McGarva) fronted up to the big Swans forwards, bashing them down if they made their way in her direction. Jenn Pawley was also back in the fold following a summer off, but you would never have guessed she had been away from the team with her work rate around the pitch and desire to carry into contact. She made a number of her impressive jabs at the Swans when we got the ball wide and her support play was phenomenal.

It wasn’t all about the returns though, as we again had a new name on the team sheet this week as Steph Sampson made her debut in the green and gold bands. Steph stepped in at hooker and did a superb job of marshalling the lineouts and most definitely got stuck in at scrum time, stealing at least one ball off the Swans - a great new addition to the club!

Our ever-reliable fullback Rochelle was tack-sharp as always, finding her voice in the team and calling the shots to get the best out of our defensive lines. Her tackling was as fearless as ever and she was worthy of her post match back of the game pint. Liv (Alpaca) Ponsford had another great run out too, taking on the big defenders with the ball in hand while winger Jane Yang did Jane Yang things in defence – namely taking on the biggest attacking players on the pitch and dominating the collisions. I certainly think the Swans were surprised by her power.

We all know how good Joss Martin’s fashion sense is and she wasn’t happy to accessorise her look only with a blue eye from all the massive hits she was putting in defensively, she made sure to have at least one blue knee to match! She was a machine, powering on through the pain. Jem Murray was an absolute workhorse on the pitch with relentless tackling and she seemed to be everywhere in the defensive line at one point, forcing Swans to move the ball because they weren’t getting through anywhere, she popped up in the line. Sticking with the J’s, new addition Jam Torres played out of position and slotted in at 9, keeping the game flowing whenever we had the ball in hand, managing our attack well by playing some heads-up rugby and using great comms to boss the forwards around. Jam was our players’ player and definitely earned that accolade for her performance.

Tara Minto turned up ready to play as always, powerfully bouncing players off her in both attack and defence, carrying half of the Swans team towards the try line at one point as they attempted to slow her down. And last, but by no means least as she was a true leader on the pitch and did a fantastic job of settling the team and putting her body on the line as an example to our newer players, was Kate (Smiler) Weighell.

There are few things in life that are better than running out with this bunch of humans - I am sure the coaches will agree with me that they’re a special group of players with the biggest hearts and so much character. Despite the result, it’s always an enjoyable day when I am on the pitch with them and I am already looking forward to doing it all again with them next weekend, hopefully with a few tries of our own!

Thanks to our support crew, Jack, Izzy and Tati for cheering us on, carrying on the drinks in breaks in play and doing some social media bits – we love to hear you on the side-lines! And it goes without saying but a huge thanks to Andy for keeping the team focused and spirits high during a tough game.