Last weekend saw our Men's 1st XV go down 21-12 against Canterbury, and our Women's 1st XV win well 31-20 against Romford and Gidea Park Ravens. Our Under 14's and Under 16's were in action too, but unfortunately came second despite two strong performances.

We have a full schedule of games this weekend to enjoy.
Before all the fun and games we have 150 Minis players and their mums and dads having lunch in the clubhouse, and that is followed by our Men's 1st XV taking on high fliers Worthing. Our 2's travel to Brunel University and both teams will be looking to get back to winning ways. The Occies have got a full squad for their trip to Old Hailleyburians, and on Sunday our Colts are back in action, taking on London Welsh Colts at Barn Elms, whilst both our Women's teams are in action at 3pm, the 1st XV are away to fierce local rivals Battersea Ironsides, whilst the 2nd XV travels to Ruislip Ladies.

What an amazing weekend awaits across the club, please do try and get down to support the Men's 1st XV, it is so appreciated and I am sure the boys will get a real lift by having you there.

Here's to a great Barnow rugby weekend, all played in the original spirit that we so love at Barnes RFC!

There are match reports below for all the games played last week, so enjoy!

MIchael "Rhino" Whitfield - Chairman - Barnes RFC

Canterbury 1st XV 21 - 12 Barnes Men’s 1st XV
We had reasons to be cheerful heading in 2022, unbeaten in November and December, and our first game in January underpinned our confidence that we would kick on. Alas since then it has not gone at all as planned and, in fact, February has been downright poor by our own standards.

Last week's defeat away to Canterbury continued our malaise, even stranger as it came on the back of an excellent defensive performance against Bury. Our defence looked to have become impenetrable in previous weeks, but it was our attack last week that let us down, when we squandered a number of chances to score, and let half a dozen opportunities go begging, if we had taken those we would have been home and hosed by the break.

Despite the missed opportunities, we were still 0-12 up at halftime, with tries by Pete Weightman and James Bloxham, and a conversion by Rob Kirby. But, much like against Guernsey a couple of weeks back, when we were 12 points up at the break, we just couldn't kick on and secure the win. We let a gutsy Canterbury side back in, and in the last 5 minutes conceded a try, and a penalty try to lose 21-12 in the end. Whilst the lads were rightly gutted, we need to become much more consistent, there is no point doing brilliantly by beating Redruth away if we then go on to give away clear leads against teams lower than the top four sides.

And that's what we have on Saturday, a top four side in the form of a resurgent Worthing side, unbeaten in 2022, having won their last 8 games on the bounce, and putting the very handy Leicester Lions side to the sword last week. When we played them in the first half of the season, we really should have won the game at their place, losing cruelly at the death 34-32 with the game in our grasp.

The good news is that like me, Worthing will not know which Barnes team they are facing this weekend, I am hoping it is the Barnes side that relishes beating teams at the top, and no more draws please either! I love this band of Barnes rugby brothers, and they are proud and resilient and I fancy them to bounce back and cause another upset this weekend, fingers crossed and passes held!

Barnes Women’s 1st XV 30 - 21 Romford & GP Ravens 1st XV
Sunday saw Barnes Women’s 1st XV take on Romford and GP Ravens in glorious sunshine at Barn Elms. Barnes started well, with really dominant forwards phases which took us up the pitch, and hands out from the backs saw our new 13 Jess go over to score our first points of the day.

Unfortunately we took our eye off the ball after this, and Romford took full advantage, scoring twice in quick succession. A quick team talk under the posts got our heads back in it, and Lily managed to regather our own kick-off, a great start to some really exciting passages of play. Our forwards were incredible, turning the ball over again and again, and eventually another backs move put Hollie J in space to score under the posts. Soon after this Ruth went over for our third try. A lack of conversions from us saw us go into halftime 15-14 up - a tense game!

The second half was just as exciting, and both teams were neck and neck. Our scrums, in particular, were incredibly dominant. It wasn't long until a particularly dominant scrum set up a crash ball for the backs, quickly followed by number 10 Nicole running blind to score in the corner. Soon after this winger Eleanor broke through to score in the corner again - 25-14 to Barnes!

There was a huge defensive effort by us, however a lack of discipline saw us give away a lot of penalties in a short space of time, pushing us back to our try line. Romford finally managed to score off yet another penalty, which they converted – 25-21 with 20 minutes to go!

The game could have gone either way at this point, thankfully our defence held out, and we pushed Romford right back to their try line. They gave away a penalty and quick thinking by Nicole saw her go over for her second try. The game ended in a 30-21 win to Barnes.

There were some incredible performances all round this week, in particular from our forwards who were exceptional. Every one of them deserved the player of the match award.

Forward of the match went to Neda, who stole more scrums than I could count and was incredible in defenceBack of the match was Zoe J, who kept good control as scrum half. Players player was Taz, who was impressive as ever at 8 and a real leader in the forwards pack

Next weekend our 1st XV take on top of the table Battersea Ironsides in what promises to be an exciting game. Our 2nd XV are playing Ruislip.

Chobham Under 16’s 27 – Barnes Under 16’s 22
Our second game against Chobham this season, and for the second time we were on the wrong side of the scoreboard by a single score. Credit to the Surrey team for the competition this season, every game has been close, and well contested, exactly what we want.

Playing into a stiff wind in the first half, the boys played the conditions well with the forwards taking on the lions share of the work. Having gone a try down, a lovely kick through by Sonny enabled Ollie to gather and score. Two unanswered tries meant we were 17-5 down at half time, but with the wind in our favour, there was a confidence in the team that this could be turned round.

An excellent score by Callum with a quality side step (cementing his transition from 2nd row to wing) got the team within touching distance, however, a further score by Chobham gave them much needed breathing space. Great pressure from the forwards resulted in Sonny pouncing on a loose ball to score which set up a grandstand finish. Sadly for the boys in pushing the score levelling try we left space out wide which Chobham exploited to go the length of the pitch to settle the game. A last-minute intercept from Will was the final score of the game.

A hugely competitive game, very enjoyable to watch and as always, fantastic to see this group develop into such a close team. Plenty of games to come - next up are London Scottish this weekend.

Barnes Under 14’s 14 - 29 Reeds Under 14’s
Reeds were our visitors, a return fixture from week 3. Which saw Alex Ovchinnik return into the fold to take his mind off his father fighting in the Ukrainian conflict, all of the Barnes rugby family is there for the family and for Ukraine too.

On the pitch, it all started well, honours even after 10 minutes but then a nasty head knock left us without our captain and our ref, who took the player to hospital. We lost our focus and went in 0-29 at halftime. We had a positive reset at halftime, kept the ball well, and scored two converted tries bringing the score back to 14-29 with two minutes to go, but then conceded a late smash and grab try to finish up 14-29 at FT. We had 56 players in total from both clubs taking part, and were able to run a 7’s game alongside the main game so all the lads got a run before heading back to the clubhouse.

Saturday 5th February

Barnes 1st XV vs Worthing - 3pm KO

Brunel University vs Barnes 2nd XV - 3pm KO

Old Haileyburians XV Occies - 3pm KO

Sunday 6th February

Barnes Colts vs London Welsh Colts - 11.30am KO

Ironsides Ladies vs Barnes Women 1st XV - 3pm KO

Ruislip Ladies vs Barnes Women 2nd XV - 3pm KO

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