The Men’s 1st XV lost their second game on the bounce to Henley 22-27, and to be honest the score flatters us quite a bit, whilst the mighty Raiders, our 2nd XV, finished their unbeaten run of 6 games against a highly talented Ampthill 2nd XV.

No excuses were sought or given, rugby is not a finite science, and you win, lose or draw based on the day itself. In a long season there are always plenty of ups and downs, this was the down weekend! We know exactly what we need to do on Saturday, we were beaten by sides that wanted it more, who competed more at the breakdown, who defended better and who were more accurate in the line out and better in the scrum. The good news is that we know how to refocus, and this week we have done just that. We will dust ourselves down and get back in the saddle having reflected on our basics and got our heads back in the room!

Th 1st XV travel to Sevenoaks, who will be another test for us, and have a good record at home, we are goon got have to be on our mettle big time to get back to winning ways, and it really won’t be easy, particularly based on their recent results, falling just short top spot side Dorking last week and also high flying Esher, in the last month they have beaten both Wimbledon and Worthing. It will certainly be a tough encounter!

All the weekend’s fixtures this weekend are below, along with the two men’s match reports.
Good luck to all our teams this weekend, may the green and gold gods be with you all!
Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes RFC

Saturday 2nd December Fixtures
• Sevenoaks vs Barnes Men’s 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Dorking 2nd XV vs Barnes 2nd XV - 2pm KO
Sunday 3rd December Fixture
• Hackney Women 1st XV vs Barnes Woman 1st XV – 2pm KO

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 22 - 27 Henley Hawks - words by Rhino
Henley thoroughly deserved their win at Barn Elms, showing a higher level of intensity and purpose than Barnes throughout the game by having the edge at scrum time, being more resilient in defence and having a sharper cutting edge, particularly in their centre pairing of Ryan Crowley and Adam Hakimian, who made a right nuisance of themselves all afternoon.
It was cold bright and dry at Barn Elms and both sides showed attacking intent from the kick off. It was Barnes Captain Josh Davies who led the way, as he often has this season, with an early try after nine minutes, it has to be said against the run of play, with Ben Cook
converting, Barnes led 7-0. Ten minutes later, man-of-the-match Adam Hakimian muscled through a non-existent gap to score under the posts, the successful conversion by Max Titchener made it 7-7, and a cracking game seemed on the cards.

Despite Henley dominating possession, Barnes did string together a good set of phases which resulted in Pete Weightman barging over from short range to regain the lead to 12-7 after 20 minutes. Henley would not lie down and Hakimian grabbed his second of the afternoon to level the score at 12-12 four minutes later. Weightman, not to be outdone, added his second right on halftime, and much to the amazement of the home crowd, Barnes led 19-12 at the break.

The chat at the break was all about Barnes needing to score first to put some blue sky between the teams, but Henley silenced the home spectators with a try almost immediately after the restart, with No:8 Zack Taylor finishing a full on assault by the Henley forwards and backs, and then hooker Tom Emery crashed over five minutes later, with Titchener converting that score, the Hawks led 24-19, and he added a penalty a couple of minutes later to extend the Henley lead to 19-27, a leading position that they would not relinquish. Despite Cook adding a penalty, and Henley losing a player to a yellow card, Barnes could not convert any of the several chances that were created, and Henley gleefully greeted every error Barnes made in their increasingly frantic efforts to up the tempo and overtake the visitors, Henley were better in all aspects of the game and Barnes were frankly lucky not to lose by more, a testament to their bloody-mindedness rather than their performance. It is a long season and it certainly showed for the home side today!

Barnes Raiders (Men’s 2nd XV) 26 - 47 Ampthill 2nd XV - words by Coach Dom Palacio
Barnes Raiders were in impressive form coming into this game, having won six games back-to-back, but last Saturday they faced their toughest opponent yet in this league campaign, facing the only Championship 2nd XV in Raging Bull League 1 - Ampthill RFC.

The Raiders squad was strong, but with limited front row replacements available, being just prop David Adejuwon on the bench as cover. The men’s wider squad had no bona fide fly half available to join the team, so we borrowed one from Rosslyn Park, Tom Wilstead – thank you as ever Park!

It was soon apparent that the men from Hertfordshire had several dual registered full-time players from Premiership outfit Saracens in their team, but Ampthill only had only one replacement player, so confidence was still high.

The first half was an arm wrestle, with both teams exchanging scores. Raiders drew first blood after 5 minutes, with hooker Dev Hope picking the ball from the back of the ruck in Ampthill 22 and making a line break to go over for the first try of the afternoon. At the 20-minute mark Ampthill took the lead, scoring their second try to make it 7 - 14 to the visitors.
10 minutes later, center Josh Jarvis went over for Barnes, making it all square. Ampthill had the final say of the half at 38 minutes with the half ending 14 - 21.
The second half started with Ampthill scoring again, taking a two-score lead and extending the score to 14 -28 in their favour. Raiders did not lie down and, at 56 minutes, number 8 James Gallagher, broke the Ampthill defensive line and made a 50-metre line break to set up, support runner Ben Christie, who went over in the corner for what was a spectacular try!

Soon afterwards, Hooker Dev Hope had to leave the field with a pulled back, and prop Adejuwon was called into action but, with him carrying a knock, his input to fray was restricted, and starting loosehead Richard Paddock moved to hooker.

The physicality of the match started to take its toll on the Raiders’ players, and despite Ampthill going down to 14, then 13 men in the last 7 minutes, they ran away with the victory in the last 15 minutes.

The last score of the afternoon went to the men in Green and Gold, with prop (now playing hooker) Paddock scoring on 75 minutes.

The final score was Raiders 26 - Ampthill 2nd XV 47.

Man-of-the-match was Michael Batty, the ever-faithful backrow/lock putting in an immense defensive set.