Our 1st XV travelled away to Canterbury in what turned out to be their best performances of the season to hold out the home team 13-22, our defence in particular was outstanding!
The 2nd XV did some they have never done before, beat Richmond 2nd XV, the Vikings, in a momentous nerve jangling 28-27 win at Barn Elms, and the Occies overcame London Media in a friendly cliff hanger 26-24.

This weekend we have three fixtures. The Men’s 1st and 2nd XV’s have the weekend off but on Friday night the Originals have a short stroll across the river over Barnes railway bridge to Chiswick RFC’s ground, where they take on London Cornish, it is an 8pm KO.
Then on Saturday and Sunday our Women take centre stage. On Saturday the 1st XV takes on Hampstead Women on the BEST pitches at 1pm, whilst on Sunday the 2nd XV travel to Belsize Park and take on their 2nd XV in a Papa Johns cup match.

A summary of all the games is below!

Here’s to a brilliant weekend of Barnow rugby, all played in that original spirit we so love at Barnes Rugby Club.

For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Michael Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

Here are the weekend’s fixtures again:

Friday 1st November Fixture
• London Cornish vs Barnes Originals - 8pm KO at Chiswick RFC
Saturday 2nd December Fixture
• Barnes Women’s 1st XV vs Hampstead Women’s 1st XV - 1pm KO - on the BEST Pitches
Sunday 3rd December Fixture
• Belsize Park Women’s 2nd XV vs Barnes Women’s 2nd XV - 2pm KO Papa Johns Cup match!

Canterbury Men’s 1st XV 13 - 22 Barnes Men’s 1st XV - words by Rhino
This was always going to be a really tough encounter, and so it proved as 4th placed Barnes played 5th placed Canterbury, a side much improved from last season.

If Barnes had any nerves, it certainly didn’t show as we came out of the traps at pace, pouncing on Canterbury errors, scoring two tires in the first ten minutes, skipper Rory Kassapian scoring after only 3 minutes after we won a penalty and drove over from the resulting lineout.

A dropped ball from the home team quickly gave us another opportunity, and a penalty for a high tackle ended in a driving maul and a try for centre Lewis Jones, converted by Jack Martin which gave Barnes a 0-12 lead.

Canterbury had hardly been seen at this point but found a way back after fifteen minutes, building their first real pressure before spreading the attack wide where Kurt Heatherley sent Alfie Orris across in the corner. Frank Reynolds brought more cheer with a conversion from the touchline to reduce the deficit to 7-12.

A penalty was conceded at the scrum by Canterbury, where we dominated all game to be honest, and that put Canterbury under the pump again, forcing them to drag down a maul illegally on their own line, and they conceded a penalty try, taking the score to 7-19. Canterbury added two penalties to make the half time score 13-19, and it was clear that the second half was going to be close and tough.
And so, it came to be!

As the heavens open the match developed into an untidy battle of wills, an arm wrestle in the mud. Barnes and Canterbury both showed excellent defensive skills, and the deadlock was only broken twelve minutes from time when Jack Martin kicked a penalty stretching our lead to 13-22, two scores in front.

Despite a huge effort, the Barnes defence was impenetrable and I am sure the last minute losses of the Dorking and Guernsey games weighed heavily on the players shoulders, if it did they didn’t let it affect their grit and determination, and clearly the lessons from those painful losses had been learned.

This was by far and away the best performance of the season and, with a rest weekend ahead, it sets them up perfectly for their massive home game on 9th November against unbeaten league leaders – what a weekend this is going to be!

Barnes Men’s 2nd XV 28-27 Richmond Vikings - words by Coach Dom Palacio

A Historic game for Barnes 2nd XV!

The visitors that joined us last weekend to help us make history were the historically dominant RFC team in the Raging Bull Merit League One - Richmond’s 2nd XV – The Vikings!
The context of this fixture is very straight forward - we had never beaten them in well over a decade of being in the same league.

With a strong squad selected, and with a handful of ex-Richmond lads in our ranks, the mood in the warm-up was one of focus and determination! The talk around the impending battle was that this would be simply 15 vs 15. We knew the men from TW13 would be full of confidence and swagger, which we ignored.

The Vikings started with tempo and accuracy, scoring their first try after just 5 minutes. With a failed conversion, the visitors were now 0-5 up. Despite the early punch on the nose from the Vikings, our boys were unphased!

The coaching focus discussed with the team before the game was on us being aggressive and dominant with our defence to stifle the Vikings' attack. Despite our tenacity, the Vikings scored again just 10 minutes later, touching down off the back of a maul. Fortunately, the Richmond 10 hadn’t brought his kicking boots and failed to convert again, but they still led 0-10.

With our lads continuing to be aggressive in defence, the Vikings started to “cough up” ball, in our favour. We scored twice and our fly half Mark McDermott converted both with his more accurate boots.

The Vikings scored again, but still no conversion gave them the slenderest of leads at half time 14-15.

The halftime talk was all about our lads continuing to dominate in defence with opportunities coming as a result.

We then scored twice in the first 15 minutes of the second half, both of which were converted by McDermott, to take the lead 28 -15.

The Vikings, however, responded with two tries of their own, neither of which was converted, and with 15 minutes to go, the score was 28-20.

With just one minute left, Richmond Vikings scored again, but we still led 28 - 27.

More drama was to come - Richmond gained possession from the restart!

Four minutes of extra time were played, but our aggressive defence stifled the Vikings' attack on multiple occasions.

They infringed at the breakdown. Penalty to Barnes!

GAME SET AND MATCH to the men in Green and Gold.

History Makers!

Man of the match went to every Barnes RFC player on the field!