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!