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Barnes Beat Barnstaple in Brass Monkeys Baltic Battle
On a day when hot water bottles would have been more useful than scrum caps, Barnes came through a feisty encounter with a five point win.
On a freezing weekend only the Men’s 1st XV turned in a winning score, overcoming Barnstaple 33-8 at Barn Elms, whilst the 2nd XV let slip at 24-17 half time lead to end up o the wrong end of a Brunel University drubbing 24-45, also at home. The Occies made up the other home team on Saturday and they too went down valiantly 23-24 to Old Haileyburians. On Sunday the Women’s 1st XV entertained fierce local rivals Battersea Ironsides, and in a close fought contest went down 10-22 at Barn Elms on Sunday. Also on Sunday, our Colts went down 14-19 in an ill-tempered encounter against Old Ruts.
The match reports are below.
This weekend sees a proper Barnes road trip to Leicester Lions for the Men, with both the 1st and 2nd XV’s travelling together to play. This is one of three tough fixtures coming up for Barnes 1st XV before Christmas, which will be followed by a trip to Old Albanian next week and a home game against Henley on 18th December. These three games will define our first half of the season I feel.
On Sunday there is a Women’s double header at Barn Elms, with the 1st XV taking on Chesham and the 2nd XV taking on Ruislip.
A summary of the fixtures are below:
Saturday 4th December
• Leicester Lions 1st XV vs Barnes 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Leicester Lions 2nd XV vs Barnes 2nd XV - 2pm KO
• Weybridge Vandals vs Barnes Occies - 2pm KO
Sunday 5th December
• Barnes Women 1st XV vs Chesham - 12.30pm KO
• Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Ruislip - 2.15pm KO
Please do try and come down on Sunday and watch our wonderful Women’s teams, and if you fancy a day trip to Leicester on Saturday you could go and see both our Men’s 1st and 2nd XV’s play!
Onwards and Upwards Barnow!
Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC
Barnes 1st XV 33 - 8 Barnstaple 1st XV
Artic conditions, and strong winds, prevailed at Barn Elms last weekend, but it did not hamper Barnes RFC who, after a fairly turgid first half, took control in the second period to secure a comfortable 33-8 win over the boys from North Devon.
Barnes scored first, with back row Albert Slade stealing a Barnstaple lineout, and advancing to the 22, from where a Jonny Burden cross-kick landed in the hands of winger Paul O’Dell for a very well worked try. With the conversion missed, Barnes lead 5-0 after 10 minutes.
Dogged work by Barnstaple secured a penalty for the visitors on 13 minutes, successfully taken by Kieran McManus, which reduced the lead to 5-3
Debutant Rob Kirby, returning for the first time to Barnes in many years, kicked a penalty to extend the Barnes lead to 8-3 after 18 minutes. Barnstaple took control of the second quarter, and were rewarded on 30 minutes when lock Jake Childs barged over the whitewash to score. With the conversion missed, the score was all square. 8-8.
A couple of minutes later Kirby kicked a further penalty, taking the score to 11-8, and that was the score at half-time It was not a riveting half of quality rugby and, if you were being churlish, you might say we did not make the most of the strong wind at our backs in the first period, but we took a lead into the changing rooms and I would take that every time!
Playing against the ever-strengthening wind, Barnes delivered a much more confident and controlled second half performance.
From a five-metre scrum, Len Ashcroft-Leigh scored our second try after only three minutes of the second period, and with Kirby’s conversion extended the Barnes lead to 17-8.
Five minutes later, Jonny Burden initiated the best move of the match, quick hands shipping the ball through each of the backs, enabling Paul O’Dell to score his second try. Despite the gale that was blowing, Kirby slotted the conversion from the touch line with consummate ease, and the Barnes lead was now a commanding 25-8.
Josh Hammett put the match beyond Barnstaple’s when he zig-zagged over for a try on 67 minutes and that made the score 33-8, indeed that was the score at the final whistle, a convincing win for the green and gold.
Barnes 2nd XV 24 - 45 Brunel University
Barnes 2’s took on Brunel University last Saturday, who since their partnership with Ealing Trailfinders have become a very strong outfit and are currently 3rd in the Raging Bull league.
The freezing weather, combined with gale force winds were always going to play a part in this game and, from a penalty try, a push over try from Greg Davies yes that back Greg Davies!) Captain Nick van Buuren crashing over, and Oli Foster kicking the goals, Barnes had the lead at halftime 24-17.
The wind blew even harder in the second half and, despite some heroic defending from the team, a combination of good rugby from Brunel, and the conditions told in the end with the students scoring 28 unanswered points in the second period! Final score: Barnes 24 – 45 Brunel University.
Barnes Colts 14 - 19 Old Ruts
In an occasionally unpleasant and violent contest, Barnes came second in the Surrey Waterfall Cup to Old Ruts. I have been playing and watching rugby for many years and a second half incident reminded me of years gone by, in the bad old days. For the most part the game was competitive but not fine, and it was 7-7 at half time. In the second half, Barnes making more errors than Old Ruts, and the opposition deserved to go into the lead, and extend it to 7-19 but as the game went on the effing and blinding was not just contained to some of the OR players on the pitch, but also to some people on the touch line. Punches were thrown as Barnes fought back to 14-19, and were threatening to score again - from this incident an Old Ruts player was red-carded and a Barnes player yellow carded, I won’t question the merits of either decision, that is the refs job, but I have to comment on the player that came in on the ref’s blindside as the melee was progressing and then punched that same Barnes player (the one that would be yellow carded). It was completely uncalled for, and unseen by the ref (not his fault at all it was behind his back), and the blow inflicted enough damage to the eye area of the Barnes player so that he was unable to retake the field. We all know that rugby is a contact game, and this is not about sour grapes, we lost fair and square, but as our head coach said: “if one of our players had done that he would have been banned for life from the club”. It is simply not good enough to hear comments from his teammates that “he is a hothead”. At the moment the club is mulling over possible actions. We move onwards and upwards and put it down to experience.