Some good results last time out, notably from the Men’s 1st XV bouncing straight back, after their loss the previous weekend, with a thumping 52-5 win over Oxford Harlequins. This win takes us to 2nd place in National League 2 East after 6 games but there are 9 teams clearly in contention in this tough league, anyone of which could turn the others over, it is going to be one of the best seasons ever, that is for sure.

Also last week, the Outriders, our Academy side, notched up a fine cup win against Battersea Ironsides 2s 40-31. This result shows how much progress this team has made since their first ever game 6 weeks ago when they lost to the same side 45-19, the future is very bright clearly!

In other games the Colts drew against a combined Teddington/London Welsh team (telling that they can’t get their own side out and have had to team up) whilst the Occies and Men’s 2nd XV lost in highly commended performances against Lightwater and Blackheath 2s respectively. Having beaten Blackheath 2s twice already this season, we were hopeful of a hattrick of wins, however Blackheath stacked their team full of talent, which prompted my favourite quote of the week from 2nd XV Coach, Tommy Burkett “Blackheath had a bench deeper than the Mariana Trench” ?

All of the match reports are below.

This weekend kicks off on Friday night, the Originals, attracted by the lure of a curry afterwards take on Cobham Vets.

There are 4 games on Saturday, the headline act is our Men’s 1st XV, who travel away to Esher, who were relegated into Nat 2 last season. The last time we were in the same league, two season ago, we beat them, home and away, so we know they will be well up for revenge, especially after they got walloped last week by Guernsey 45-19. We will need to forget the romp last week against Quins and knuckle down for a war of attrition, what an exciting match up this looks to be!

Our Men’s 2nd XV is the only home team at Barn Elms on Saturday, with the Outriders on their first bus trip to Worthing and the Occies down the A3 against Old Emmanuel.
On Sunday, our Women’s 2nd XV travel away to Grasshoppers and that will round off a brilliant weekend of Barnow Rugby!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

The coming weekend’s fixtures in full:
Friday 17th October Fixture
• Cobham Vets vs Barnes Originals - 7:45pm KO
Saturday 18th Fixtures
• Esher 1st XV vs Barnes Men’s 1st XV - 3pm KO
• Barnes Men’s 2nd XV vs Richmond Vikings - 2pm KO
• Worthing 3rd XV vs Barnes Outriders - 3pm KO
• Old Emanuel vs Barnes Occies - 3pm KO
Sunday 19th Fixture
• Grasshoppers Women’s 2nd XV vs Barnes Women’s 2nd XV - 2:30pm KO

Barnes Occies 26-57 Lightwater - words by Captain Dan Shelley
A tough afternoon for the Occies, going down 56 - 26 to Lightwater, but the scoreline doesn’t tell the full story.

After a shaky start, and some early defensive lapses, the lads dug deep, showing real grit and determination to keep battling.

The second half saw a proper response, with Barnes outscoring Lightwater in the final 40, and playing with real intent and energy. Tries came from sustained pressure, slick hands, and a bit of trademark Occies spirit proving there’s plenty to build on heading into the next fixture.

Not the result we wanted, but plenty of heart on show. Onwards and upwards.

Blackheath 2nd XV 43-12 Barnes Men’s 2nd XV – words by Coach James Love
It was a cracking autumn day, the kind where the sun’s out, the leaves are doing their best impression of a confetti cannon, and Barnes were on a mission to bag three wins in as many weeks against Blackheath. Chinnor had bailed on us, handing us the points like a dodgy dealer at a festival, and we were chuffed to bits. The lads strutted out onto what can only be described as the finest pitch outside Twickenham. Hats off to the ground staff at ‘The Club’ – they’ve clearly been watching too much Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The whistle blew, and Blackheath came out like a bull in a china shop, desperate to make a statement on their home turf. Barnes were under siege, pinned in their own 22 for what felt like an eternity. But our defence was as solid as a rock, and slowly but surely, we inched our way down the pitch. Barnes got a penalty, and Elliot booted the ball into Blackheath’s corner like he was aiming for the moon. The lineout ball came in, Max caught it, and we went for a big shove. Blackheath held their nerve, nicked the ball, but then fumbled it like a toddler with a slippery toy. Barnes scrum! A textbook 5-metre scrum followed, and the ball pinged wide to a defence that looked more unsettled than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Sam dived over in the corner, and we were off to a flyer.

They say you’re most vulnerable after scoring, and they weren’t wrong. Blackheath kicked deep, we made a few blunders, and before we knew it, they had a lineout, a scrum, and then it was their turn to score and add the extras. 7-5 to Blackheath. Not to be outdone, Barnes pounced on a loose ball, Giles fly-hacked it towards the Blackheath line, and Charlie charged through like a freight train to score in the corner. 12-12, and it was game on! Barnes kept the pressure on, camping in Blackheath’s 22 like it was a summer festival. Just before half-time, against the run of play, a cheeky back’s move and a solid line by Blackheath’s 13 sent them over the line to end the first half. Blackheath 19, Barnes 12. Not much to add in the half-time huddle – the boys knew what they had to do.

It was a game of two halves, and Blackheath had a bench deeper than the Mariana Trench, allowing them to rotate players like a well-oiled machine. We had our own bomb squad with Rich Paddock, Cam Ruddock, and Malcolm Nimmo on the bench, but we were clearly outgunned in the second half. It was going to be a tough day at the office, and Blackheath took full advantage when Barnes were reduced to 14 men for what was deemed a no-arm tackle. Blackheath scored four tries without reply, but Barnes kept fighting like a terrier with a bone. It wasn’t to be, and on this day, we came second. Blackheath 43, Barnes 12. Barnes are still top of the Gaucho league, with a visit to second-placed Richmond on Saturday followed by a home game against old rivals Esher. Man of the match was Jamie Fulcher today, and the boys even made it back in time for the first team game. Well done, lads!

Barnes Outriders 40-31 Battersea Ironsides - The Outriders Strike Again!
Words by Academy Chairman Jason Betteley
On a glorious Saturday early afternoon, the Outriders hosted Battersea Ironsides 2s at Barn Elms for our first Cup match of the season.

As avid readers might recall, the first ever match for The Outriders was on Saturday 6th September against Ironsides 2s in the London Premiership. That last outing was tough for the lads. Although we held Ironsides at 7-7 in the first half, Battersea showed their experience and maturity by ploughing through us in the 2nd half, scoring 7 tries in total and beating us 45-19.

With 5 weeks’ worth of training, a win against Richmond 4s and some well-deserved bonding sessions in the clubhouse, the Outriders were determined not to let that happen this time.

We came out storming and threw everything at them; 4 minutes after kick off, Daniel H ran a perfect inside centre line, breached their defence and scored a beauty! Ironsides didn’t know what had hit them. We continued along these same lines, throwing everything we had at them and more, and succeeded with tries from Henry “Frosty” Frost and Max Payne. With three superb conversions from our Skipper, Jake Shaw, and a very lonely sojourn by Ironsides into our half resulting in a try, we finished the first half at 19-5 up! So different to our first match against them in early September

Knowing that Ironsides would not want to take this score lying down, the half time talk straight and simple … more of the same, please (oh and a few tactical changes!). Well, Battersea didn’t take it lying down. We took it to them again in the first 10mins of the 2nd half with a proper Forwards push on and a lovely pick up and bash through by our No 6, Tom Routledge. Another lovely conversion from Jake took us to 26-5 but our attack definitely caused Ironsides to flick a mental and physical switch: they came back at us with all guns blazing and with 25 mins gone and 3 tries and 2 conversions later, our massive lead was down to a 2-point difference: Outriders 26-24 Ironsides. They could smell blood, and we had to stand firm. Our flying 14, Tiondre Brown, was on top form and took a chance to nip through and score, relieving some of the pressure to take it back up to 33-24 but Battersea were having none of it.

They were magnificent in attack and pinned us back within our 22 for what felt like a very long 10 minutes, with Ironsides eventually scoring a converted try to take us up to 33-31. Although the lads took a huge amount of pummelling, they also took a massive amount of confidence from it. With 4 mins to go and with shouts of “we’ve got them lads” ringing in the ears of The Outriders, we used this confidence to go again and play in their half from the restart.

The Outriders Yoof got together and our new fly half, 18yr old Tomos Harvey, together with our very own Duracell bunny, 18yr old Dan Roberts and 18 yr old Toby Graham (Barnow’s 3rd generation of the Graham Family Vintage) put on a master class. We pinned them back, caused chaos in the Battersea defence and finished with a 3-man chop tackle with Sam Reeves making the biggest hit. The ball popped out and there was Tiondre to pick it up, show them his dancing feet and put on the after burners. I tell you what, the amazing crowd of local supporters (including this writer) went bananas!! Jake finished it off with his 5th conversion of the day to take the final score to 40-31.

Battersea Ironsides 2s are a good side. They definitely had us in the 2nd half and they played so well to bring the game back on track. But for our bravery over 10 long minutes in defence, despite it resulting in a try, I think our heads would have dipped. But thankfully, our heads stayed up, and confidence remained high.

Onwards and Upwards to Worthing next Saturday … our first proper out-of-London away match!!

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 52-5 Oxford Harlequins - words by Honorary Secretary Richard Fenech
Quins’ effort and territory was not reflected in the only try they scored in the first ten minutes, other than that a wily Barnes side dominated in every facet of the game.

Jacques Birch scored from the off with Harvey Graham converting, thus setting a pattern which we would follow several times during the match.

Poor early kicking from Quins gifted Barnes a lineout, from which we formed a perfect driving maul which Mark McDermott scored from, and Graham converted for the extras.
Another dominant driving maul led to the leagues top try scorer, Dan Robertshaw, adding to his season’s tally, Graham again converted.

Birch proved he was back to full fitness adding a second try, but Quins get some ball after that, matched fully by Barnes, who put on a masterclass in defence, underpinned by excellent interplay between our backs & forwards.

Barnes forwards relished the ‘trio combo’ of lineout, maul and try, and that was arguably the main demoraliser for Quins, who put in good passages of open play, but were often penalised in their defence with poor tackle technique.

Likewise, the Barnes scrum exposed technical weakness in the Quins pack, which referee Parson officiated in a refreshing manner, essentially important if the game is to preserve this most important aspect of the contest!

After the disappointment of losing to Oundle the previous week, Barnes showed what they are really capable of when 15 play together in a seamless manner, they now need to make a habit of it - it looks very good!