The Men’s 1st and 2nd XV’s both won tough league games, the 1’s overcoming a nuggety and resilient Westcombe Park side 33 - 48, whilst the standout result was the Raiders putting Blackheath 2nd XV to the sword 26-53, which really shows the strength of our 1st XV squad.

On Sunday the Women’s 1st XV continued their good progress in the third rung of The Championship with their second win of the season, 17-22 away at Hove.

Currently, both our Men’s 1st and 2nd XV’s lie in 2nd place in their highly competitive leagues, and the Women’s 1st XV have already climbed to 3rd in their league.

The performance of the club across the board looks strong at this early stage in the season.

There are THREE big games this weekend to enjoy, and ALL of them are at Barn Elms, so as well as the Rugby World Cup quarter finals, you can fill your boots with oodles of Barnow rugby too, no excuses, why not bring your camp bed to the clubhouse and stay there all weekend - you know it makes sense!

First up on Saturday, the Originals kick off at Barn Elms at 1:15pm, when they play Richmond Heavies in the first encounter of the Bosch Crabtree Trophy, which honours two fallen heroes, Patrick Crabtree from Barnes and Stephen “Bosch” Fairn, both tragically taken from us far too early. We will remember them always.

Next up is our Men’s 1st XV, who take on a potential banana-skin game when they play Canterbury, who look a much stronger side, losing very narrowly to Dorking last week 31-36, and beating Worthing away convincingly the previous week 38-45. We will need to be on our mettle for this one! The good news is that we have most of our injured players back this week, and after our 2nd XV win against Blackheath last week it is going to be a massive headache for Jack Heald and his coaches as to who to select, a good problem to have!

On Sunday, our Women’s 2nd XV plays a league game at Barn Elms against Belsize Park 2nd XV, so you can see two games on Saturday at Barn Elms, and one on Sunday, I can’t think of a better way to spend a weekend!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Michael Whitfield - President Barnes RFC

Saturday 14th October Fixtures

• Barnes Men’s 1st XV vs Canterbury - 3pm KO

• Barnes Originals vs Richmond Heavies - 1.15pm KO

Sunday 15th October Fixture

• Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Belsize Park Women - 2.15pm KO

Westcombe Park 1st XV 33-48 Barnes Men’s 1st XV - words by Rhino

Barnes continued their strong start to the season in a high-scoring and entertaining encounter against a spirited and talented Westcombe Parkside, that never gave up, and came at us constantly.

‘Combe took an early 7-0 lead, through a converted Jacob Buckley try Both sides then swopped scores throughout the half, ‘Combe scoring a further three tries through wing Kieran Thompson, then fellow winger Joe Ratcliff after a dominant home scrum, and finally hooker Taine Wagstaff also touched down for the visitors.

Of course Barnes are a patient and resilient side, and we fired some telling shots of our own with three close quarter tries from Cam Roberts out wide, Ethan Sikorski scoring his third try in two weeks after a penetrating midfield break and Paul O’Dell also dotted down. With half time approaching Ryan Nixon, continuing his rich vein of form, extended the Barnes lead to 26-29, Ben Cook notching up 3 conversions and a try to enhance his reputation as one of the best fly-halves in the league.

The second half started with two yellow cards against Westcombe Park.

Paul Webb opened the scoring for the Green and Gold but ‘Combe hit back through a second try for Ratcliff. As Barnes moved into top gear, our ruck speed, evident throughout the game, and two further tries for O’Dell and Webb sealed the win for Barnes.

Another good five points on the road for Barnow, and next week we take on Canterbury at Barnes Elms, before a well-needed two weeks of rest for all our players over the Rugby World Cup semi-finals and final weekend in Paris.

Barnes’s next 1st XV game will be our annual trek to Guernsey, for another gripping installment in the always enthralling series of encounters between Barnes and their crafty coach, the badger, Jordan Reynolds!

Blackheath Heathens 26-53 Barnes Raiders - words by Coach Dom Palacio

buoyant Raiders squad, having won their last two fixtures, and taking their first National 1 second team scalp last week away to Chinnor Kestrels, were in a positive frame of mind for the trip across the Capital to face Blackheath Heathens, the “Clubs” 2nd XV.
Recent form against the men in red & black, was 3-0 in their favour, Raiders losing narrowly on all three occasions, suggesting getting the “W” on this occasion was going to be tough ask!
Raiders however were bolstered by the rotation of 1st XV squad players involved in the initial few 1st XV fixtures this season, as well as returning injured players. Confidence was high, and the focus at training the previous week was on keeping to our processes and structures, knowing that if we did so that it would put us in a good position to overcome our opposition.
What actually happened was that the Raiders delivered their most professional, and dominant, performance of the season so far. The scrums were pretty evenly matched, however the Raider’s lineout was dominant, with several steals from the Heathens set piece, giving us the platform to launch are backs.
Raiders tally in the first half was an outstanding 31 points, Blackheath did come back with two tries of their own, ending the half at 12-31.
The second half saw Raiders continue their clinical and positive control of the match, but the Heathens never gave up, scoring a further 14 points in the second half, both of their tries coming in the last 15 minutes.
Despite this late rally, Raiders concluded the afternoon in the balmy October heat in SE9, with a much deserved and impressive victory, the final score was 26 – 53 to Barnes.
The man-of-the-match was Joe Murphy, his first match back for a month after injury.

Hove Women’s 1st XV 17 - 22 Barnes Women’s 1st XV - words by Skipper Ruth Mottershead

Our women’s 1st XV travelled down to Brighton to play Hove on Sunday. The sun was shining and, after a weekend off, we were raring to go.

We had our first ever championship win against Medway two weeks before, and were hoping to keep the winning streak going. From kick off we looked dominant, and had most of the possession for a good 25 minutes. The Hove defence was strong however and mistakes by us meant the game remained 0-0.

Eventually Hove managed to get their hands on the ball and broke through our defence. An incredible last ditch tackle by Caroline saw them drop the ball over the try line. Soon after that a driving maul from Hove saw them score and take the lead 5-0.

With two minutes left in the first half, some further strong attacking play by Hove saw them go over the line again, and we went into half time 10-0 down.

The whole team was frustrated by the score line as we all felt we deserved points. Chris gave us a good talking to, and we went back out for the second half determined to fix our mistakes.

We went back into our playing structure, and it soon paid off. Strong forward carries took us up the pitch, with our backs then testing their outside defence. Eventually a move off a scrum in the 22 saw winger Liv go over in the corner, which cut the deficit to 10-5.

Frustratingly Hove were quick to respond, picking up a loose ball to score under the posts, extending their lead to 17-5.

From this point in the game our resilience was really tested. It was hot, exhausting and we were trying to catch up. Every single player put in a shift to get the momentum going. We slowly made our way up the pitch, forcing Hove to give away penalties and using the lineout to our advantage. Once again, our forwards drew them in and made space for our wings, this time with Bigland over in the corner. 17-10.

With 10 minutes left in the game we were all determined to keep scoring, and our 3rd try came soon after. We pinned Hove in their 22, and eventually Caroline scored on the left wing. 17-15.

The final section of the game was just extraordinary. Hove were doing everything they possibly could to keep us out, and it felt like the win might be just out of reach. Thankfully a mistake on a penalty gave us a scrum with 20 seconds to go. Once again our system worked, and hard line after hard line from our forwards stretched their defence. In the last play of the game Ruth broke through a gap to score under the posts. Final score 17-22 to Barnes.

The sheer grit and resilience showed by the team was like nothing I have experienced, and shows just how far we have come as a squad. To be sitting in 3rd place in a new league is a brilliant achievement, and I am hugely proud of the team.

Back of the match this week was no. 13 Beans, who was consistently strong in attack and defended especially well.

Forward of the match went to Sasha, who had a fantastic game at prop and tackled ferociously.

Our players player was No:10 Tati. Her game management was incredible, and she broke the defensive line countless times.

We are looking to continue our winning ways when we next play Blackheath at home on 22nd October.

Come down to Barnes this weekend to cheer on the 2nd XV in their first home game against Belsize Park 2’s.