Last weekend saw four adult games, the Women’s 1st XV came agonisingly close to overcoming Wasps in the Cup, going down 27-31 in the end to two late tries, whilst the Men’s 2s were a long way short of beating Richmond’s 3rd XV, ending up the wrong end up of a 50-24 result, whilst a combined Occies, Vets and Outriders team went down 55-17 to London Media 2’s. The Men’s 1st XV provided the one shining light, winning a pulsating encounter at Barn Elms 34-32 against old adversaries Canterbury, maintaining our 5-year unbeaten home and away run against the Kent side.

Match reports for each game are below.

This weekend is a rest weekend for the Men’s and Women’s 1s and 2s, so we have just two fixtures for your entertainment, the Outriders take on Richmond Normans at Barn Elms at 2.30pm whilst the there is with an Under 18s round robin between Barnes, Teddington and The Hague, those games kick off at 1.30pm with each team playing each other.
With both games at home this weekend, please do get down and support the lads, they will love it!

Barnes Men’s 1st XV has their next fixture at home on Saturday 31st October at home against Leicester Lions with a 2pm kick off now the nights are drawing in - stick it in your diary now!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield – President Barnes Rugby Club

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 34 - 32 Canterbury Men’s 1st XV - words by Rhino

A gusty second half performance from the Green and Gold, coming back to win 34-32 having been 12-24 down at one stage earlier in the half.

It wasn’t always pretty, we gave away too many penalties, our body positions often too high in the tackle, and we conceded three tries to driving mauls, normally our own super skill, not a weakness, but for all those weaknesses the power of teamship, of sheer bloody mindedness and utter determination to win, was the key denominator in the end. We definitely have the wood over Canterbury, having not lost home or away in the last five seasons.

But we have already seen this season, we have to date been fragile in games we have dominated in previous seasons, and Canterbury have had a better start to the season than we have, and indeed got off to the better start in this game, scoring though their hooker Eule Lucas, the first of his two tries from a driving maul before Barnes hit back with tries from centre Paul O’Dell and hooker Joshua Naftalin, Barnes then led 12-7.

Too many penalties and unforced errors from the home side allowed Lucas to get his second try in identical fashion to the first on the half hour, and, with an additional penalty to his two conversions, Lewis Holldige secured a 12-17 lead for the visitors at the break.

Barnes needed a strong start to the second half, but a yellow card against second row Caelan Stanton two minutes thwarted that ambition. Down to 14 men, Canterbury scored almost immediately, winger Maxim Campbell cutting through Barnes’s slack defence to score under the posts, extending the score to 12-24, Barnes had a mountain to climb! Still with 14 men, Barnes delivered their own driving maul from a line out, Finn Watson driving over powerfully to cut the deficit to 17-24.

Canterbury continued to frustrate the home team, scoring their third try from a driving maul, taking the score after 54 mins to 17-29. Stanton made up for his 10 minutes in the sin bin, crashing over after great pressure from his fellow forwards, Barnes getting closer at 22-29. Barnes substitute hooker, Jasper Cameron scored next for Barnes, but with fly half Jack Park missing his third conversion of the afternoon, the home side still trailed 27-29 with 15 minutes left.

Canterbury extended their lead with ten minutes left with a penalty to lead 27-32 but Barnes threw the kitchen sink at Canterbury who looked out on their feet at the end, as the home team relentlessly attacked the Canterbury line, scrum half Charlie Briers saw a tiny gap and jinked through it to seize the moment and give the home side a 34-32 lead and they then proceeded to control the game in the remaining minutes to hold out the visitors.

Barnes Women’s 1st XV 27 - 31 Wasps Women - words by Captain Kitty Robinson

With fantastic support from the Girl’s section and the wider club, Barnes ran out at BEST to face local rivals Wasps.

Sideways rain at kick off couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for this long-awaited game and Barnes were dominant from the start. Winning the physical battles and gaining ground, it took just 8 minutes for Liv Ponsford to dance her way around defenders and get over the try line.

Wasps were quick to hit back making easy ground with Barnes giving away unnecessary penalties. Wasps found soft shoulders and got through for a try.

After that little blip, Barnes were back down in Wasps half following another great break from Liv. Wasps did briefly get the ball back, but a badly judged kick resulted in Barnes backs running in space with Meg finishing the try out wide.

Harriet Walker was carving through with ball in hand in the centres, proving uncatchable and she went over for her first ever Barnes try.

After half time Barnes found themselves deep in their own half, despite consistent big tackles from Jeanette, Rosie and Liv Branga wasps were making ground. Rosie gets in for a much needed jackal, the ball is quickly moved out to Liv who made a great break down the wing with the try finished by a pass inside to Harriet who went under the posts.

Despite a determined defensive effort, Wasps eventually find a way through to score.
Liv P scores again following a great pick up from Zoe Jeffers and break from Charlotte Bigland.

A flurry of injuries for Barnes resulted in lots of substitutions and position changes, Wasps capitalised on the disruption and broke through to score.

A powerful Wasps winger proved too strong and fast, and she broke through for 2 tries in the last 10 minutes.

A heartbreaking final score of Barnes 27 - 31 Wasps

The Coaches player was Harriet

Two forwards of the match were Jeanette and Kitty

London Media 2’s 55 - 17 v Barnes Baa Baa’s - words by Horts and Rich

…..and the clean shaven faces of the Outriders rather perplexed looked around the changing room; ‘where’s the warm up tops, the half-cut socks & the isotonic drink’……” something’s not right” one whispered; ‘it’s like the Hunger Games”!

By Thursday late morning Kingston couldn’t field a side to play the Occies, who only had 4, whilst 8 Vets were waiting to hear who they were going to play! Yet after countless messages, calls and another WA channel being created, London Media were in search of a fixture at theirs, which we took with a team of 12 and sent a rallying call across the airwaves!
By Saturday morning a pristine representation of Outriders found themselves in the Pavilion at Battersea Park as well as a few players from other clubs and we were now at least 20!

Sadly, though our jubilance in wearing kit even Ken had thrown out was not enough to help us beat a well drilled Media 2s who genuinely played some great rugby whilst capitalising on our naive errors.

Yet what we lacked in game management we made up for in spades by being one proper team of blokes (age 22 - 56), who wanted to play rugby and stay in the fight. The game epitomised everything a friendly had to offer, a ref, who claimed to be rusty made a brilliant job of letting the game flow and no more than a few scuffles dissipated into, ‘yeah my Dad would have yours any day!’ We played with real intent and scored 3 or 4 tries, put some good phases together and arguably had the upper hand in the scrum, (it’s called Tank), but out wide Media had fiery pace which we couldn’t match.

The score matters not.

A fixture that was badly needed left a bunch of lads very happy and some older men feeling still younger. Better still, absolute strangers made some great new friendships and with some hazy recollections included the awesome Cam Ruddock being Media’s man of the match (it’s all in the Gum Shield Cam!), Scotty introducing us to his Dad Scott, Dave BANG - proper nice bloke, Tank & Tankets beaming, Outriders - ALL of them, solid and special and above all Frosty…..MOD, we are in safe hands!

Huge thanks to Physio Polly for looking after us, cracking Media post-match hospitality and to all the players that showed us that rugby is alive and kicking, if we want it to be…….

Oh, and reassuringly you will be pleased to know that Enable Leisure ‘facilities management’ are consistent; the pitch at Battersea just as good as ours at Barn Elms; bravo!

Richmond 3s 50 - 24 Barnes Men’s 2s - words by Coach Tommy Burkett

Barnes 2s travelled to Richmond for what proved to be a tough afternoon against a strong and well-organised home side.

Richmond started brightly and showed exactly why they are a difficult team to face on their own patch. They were clinical when opportunities came their way and built a lead that left Barnes chasing the game.

But the final score doesn’t tell the whole story.

There were some really positive moments from Barnes, particularly with ball in hand. When the 2s found their rhythm and put phases together, they showed they could cause Richmond plenty of problems.

Will Miscampbell grabbed two tries after some excellent Barnes attacking play, while Rory Kassapian also crossed as Barnes continued to play positively and look for opportunities throughout the afternoon.

The most encouraging aspect was that Barnes kept going. Even as Richmond stretched their advantage, the 2s continued to compete, continued to attack and were rewarded with 24 points of their own.

Ultimately, Richmond were the better side on the day and deserved their 50–24 victory, but there were enough glimpses of good Barnes rugby to take forward.

Not every Saturday goes your way. Sometimes you take the lessons, enjoy the good bits, forget the scoreboard and move on.

Final score: Richmond 3s 50 – 24 Barnes 2s.

A tough trip, some good rugby in patches and plenty to build on. The 2s dust themselves down and go again next week.