Another strong weekend for Barnes RFC last time out, with the Men’s 1st XV smashing Tonbridge Juddians 33-7 to keep up their winning momentum, whist the Raiders blew away a combined Bishops Stortford 2nd and 3rd XV 58-19. On Sunday, our Under 13's took on Sutton and Epsom, and a full Colts squad beat London Welsh Colts 28-12 in a friendly before the Women’ 2nd XV travelled to Ruislip Ladies and losing in a nail biter 12-7. The reports are below,

This weekend starts on Friday night again, with the Originals playing Cobham Vets under lights, before heading off into Cobham for beers and a curry.

On Saturday the Men’s 1st XV travel to Canterbury to continue their league season, we beat the men from Kent 37-26 back in November at Barn Elms, and their form this year, beating Sevenoaks, TJ’s and 2nd placed Worthing, tells us they are most certainly no mugs and we will need to take them seriously to make sure they do not become a potential banana skin.
The Raiders are at Esher again, looking to avenge their recent defeat there. Barnes Occies are also on the road, playing Sutton and Epsom 2nd XV. On Sunday, the Women’s 1st XV continue their assault to reach the top of their league, playing Oxford Quins Ladies. Please do try and get down to support the Women this weekend, they love having your support, they kick off at 2:30pm.

Here's to a brilliant weekend of Barnow Rugby, onwards and upwards the green and gold!
Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC

Barnes 33-7 Tonbridge Juddians
On a bitterly cold day, Barnes provided the sunshine with one of their most complete performances of the season so far. Both sides looked evenly matched at the start, but the home side edged ahead in first half through their dominant pack, before unleashing their backs in the second half.

It was cat and mouse for the first fifteen minutes, two good teams battling it out between the 22’s.

The sheer pace of the game, and the ferocious tackling from both sides, was the highlight of that first period, and it took a sustained series of pick and drives to break the TJ’s defence, hooker and try machine Alex March notching up his 10th try in five consecutive matches to break the deadlock.

With the conversion missed, Barnes led 5-0, a lead they would never lose in the match. As Barnes’s pack turned the screw, it forced TJ’s to concede a series of penalties in their 22, from which the home team attacked relentlessly with sustained pick and drives, before prop George Dean bulldozed over for another score, two minutes before half time. With Simon Keller bagging the extras, Barnes extended their lead to 12-0, which was the score at the break.

Four minutes into the second half, full-back Connor Cross made a scything break, evading six tacklers before executing a neat offload to winger Chris Stegmann, who promptly scored under the posts, Keller again adding the conversion to his match tally, and Barnes moved into an unassailable lead at 19-0.

Despite the pace of the game so far, Barnes found some extra energy and upped their tempo, whilst at the same time TJ’s were visibly tiring, their heads dropping. The Barnes players, still looked full of running , and were clearly relishing every attack inside the TJ’s half, finding holes at will in the visitor’s defence and it was through once such hole that Alex March scored his second try of the match in the 56th minute, Keller converting making the score 26-0.

With the game drawing to a close, Barnes continued to pummel the TJ’s line, and a poor exit kick from them was caught by the elusive Connor Cross, who threw an outrageous dummy at full throttle to wrong foot the TJ’s defence, and score under the sticks with five minutes of the game left. Keller added the two points to give Barnes a 33-0 lead.
After an unfortunate yellow card against Barnes prop Alex Wood, TJ’s got a consolation try at the death with centre James Newey to make it 33-7 at the final whistle, bringing to an end a dominant performance from the green and gold.

Sutton and Epsom vs Barnes Under 13's - words from coach Graham Thomas
On Saturday, Barnes Under 13's played away against Sutton and Epsom in a Waterfall competition game. After spending the first few minutes a man down due to some logistics issues (stud inspection – they’ll learn from that!), Barnes shipped three swift tries and ended the half 5-0 down.

Barnes produced a spirited display in the second half, with a strong phase of three unanswered tries, ending the match 7-4. Some great displays across the team, in particular from our front row, whose strength in the scrum really told, man-of-the-match Raff for all round dynamism, and some great running lines from the back three. We also had a new pairing at 10 and 12 that clicked in the second half - well done. Best of all, the whole team worked out how they needed to play in the second half and thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the process.

This Sunday the Under 13 squad all travel to take on Old Reigatians in two matches, both A and B teams have key cup matches against strong opposition.

Barnes Colts 28-12 London Welsh Colts
Barnes Colts won 28-12 in a friendly against London Welsh at Home. 28 Barnes players took part in the fixture. It was the last home fixture for the Under 18s in the squad. We celebrated with a formal lunch in the clubhouse and extended the festivities taking in the 6-nations and Carabao Cup. 'Super Sunday' indeed! Next up, combined Weybridge Vandals & Old Cranleighans away in the Quins Cup.

Esher Expendables 12- 77 Barnes Originals
On the 29th of September last year I was at a low ebb. We had nine players committed to go to play London Irish - tough times! At the last minute, a desperate text to Cameron (Esher Expendables skipper) resulted in Esher sending six players to help get the game on. They made it possible.

On Friday night we took a strong, youthful - several players just turned 35 - team to Esher to play under lights on their continent-sized 1st XV pitch. It is clearly big at level 4, imagine the feeling of impending embarrassment and fatigue in Vets rugby…

A big thanks to OJ, Andrea and Sully from the Occies. Another big thank you to Steve George and Gareth Morgan who added ballast. And finally, a big welcome to Tom Appleyard who played his first game in green and gold, joining his Uni muckers Charlie Frost and Gaz Mellor.

Barnes Originals won the Cup fixture 12 - 77. In truth, I take little delight in seeing an opposition (who we are fond of) going back under their sticks. Tight competition is always preferred. Although post-game, I mentioned these sentiments to a Barnes alickadoo who had come to watch, to which he replied “Sod ‘em, they’ve thrashed us plenty of times”.

In the second half we lost a prop, which led to uncontested scrums. Just before uncontested scrums began, our inside centre, Niall Boyle, said he would “give Hooker a go”. The referee penalised us at the next scrum. On retreating, he warned Niall that he would be penalised again if he repeated the mistake. To which Niall replied “but what if it was an accident?” The Ref was stunned by the unorthodox riposte. As corporate philosopher David Brent once said, “Sometimes an amateur will stitch up a professional”.

So whether we lend players to Esher (which we did a few years ago), or they lend players to us, or we are competing in our own colours, Esher Expendables play in the original spirit. And that is not an accident!