Well, what a weekend last weekend at Barnes RFC, on the occasion of the 12th Vets lunch in the clubhouse, 150 mates from teams over the last 40 years gathered in the clubhouse to reminisce over days when they were young and played with each other in the green and gold of Barnes. It was an amazing day, kicked off by lunch, hosted by Mark Durden-Smith, followed by two games against Esher, finished on Saturday night by a 1st XV squad karaoke, lead by Captain Ryan Seabright and Head Coach Joe Gray, both far too scantily clad for my liking.

As I headed off into the sunset around 9pm’ish (all very vague and unclear!) I heard the third rendition of “Dancing Queen” booming out of the speakers, and smiled to myself, the out of tune voices screeching as one, reinforcing for me that all at Barnes RFC is good, it was like the good old days before the pandemic and boy didn’t it feel good, and boy, wasn’t it needed!

And on Sunday, the icing on the cake was the Women’s 1st XV 72-7 dismantling of Millwall Ladies in a friendly after the visitors had conceded the fixture in advance, as they are a side rebuilding, after a tough season.

The Men’s 1st XV went down 16-6 in a gritty display against the league favourites Esher in the main event. Although we had parity in the first half, we never got out of our half in the second half and, although our defence was heroic, we couldn’t get enough ball to score more points.

The second XV had their own battle against Esher 2’s too, winning a titanic struggle 27-21, all in all, quite the weekend!

And this weekend looks even bigger, with the 1st XV travelling to Leicester Lions, the first time we have played them this season, our first game being cancelled due to Covid in the ranks. This weekend we are already seriously depleted with the dreaded ‘vid striking again, along with several key injuries, but because we had so much flak the last time from certain people within the Leicester camp we will go anyway, and hold our heads high, Our 2’s were due to play 2’s too but they have cancelled the fixture this time, we won’t complain, just take it on the chin like grown-ups do. For me the Lions are one of the strongest teams in the league, having played Redruth, Clifton and Esher in the last few weeks we will be able to judge for ourselves, but I am expecting a very tough day at the office.

On Sunday, both our Women’s XVs are playing away: the 1st XV at London Welsh and the 2nd XV at Belsize Park, both games kick off at 2pm. If you can get to London Welsh, I know the Women would massively appreciate.

Before the Women’s fixtures, there is a full array of Juniors games at Barn Elms, the Under12’s kicking it all off at 10:30am and the Colts closing off the proceedings at midday with a clash of the Titans against Esher Colts, that is going to be a humdinger for certain!
All of the kick off times are underneath the 1st XV and 2nd Men’s XV’s, and the Women’s 1st XV reports below

You club is buzzing right now and isn’t it brilliant!

Here’s to another amazing weekend of Barnow rugby, all played in the original spirit we so love at Barnes RFC!

Rhino x

Michael "Rhino" Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC

Barnes 1st XV 6 -16 Esher 1st XV

When two tribes go to war
After the 17-17 draw last year in the tempest of Esher, this game was set to be a cracker, alas the conditions reduced the game to a scrappy contest, with Barnes pinned in their own half for much of it. It was a game for the purists with Esher turning the screw in the second period, winning 6-16 in the end to continue their pursuit of promotion, now unbeaten in 11 games.

Unlike the first encounter, it was dry at Barn Elms but there was a whipping wind swirling around the ground. Barnes played with the wind in the first half and, if truth was told, failed to take advantage of the wind behind them.

The first half was a close encounter, an arm wrestle enacted in close quarter,
There was little between the sides in that first period, Rob Kirby missed an early penalty, and it was the visitors who scored first, with winger Daniel Rowland breaching the green and gold line for the first time after 11 minutes.

Barnes came back at Esher and were not daunted by the opposition’s superior league position and secured a penalty near the halfway line which Rob Kirby slotted with consummate ease to reduce the deficit to 3-5 after 11 minutes.
The game was evenly balanced at that point, and Barnes began to exert a little more control.

After his perfect record last week, Rob Kirby missed another penalty opportunity to take the lead as we approached the half hour mark, but he made amends and converted another penalty two minutes later for Barnes to take the lead 6-5 on 28 minutes.
Barnes lost concentration to let Esher into their 22 and a tip-tackle resulted in Jordan Souter being yellow carded for the home team, the resulting penalty leaving Esher an easy 3 points to regain the lead 6-8, and that was the score after a fairly low key, attritional first half.
With the win now blowing harder, and into the faces of the home team, Esher started aggressively, and camped in the Barnes half, which they rarely left in the second half. The Esher pressure told in the end with Sam Morley slotting a penalty to extend their lead to 6-11.

Although Barnes huffed and puffed, we just could not get out of our half and it was only a matter of time before Tom Mitchell, the Esher full back, cantered in to score and extend the Esher lead to 6-16 after 67 minutes, with Morley missing the conversion.

And that was it, in terms of scoring, Esher threatened the Barnes line relentlessly for the remainder of the last quarter of the game, but the Barnes defence was resolute and did not yield, a testament to the fitness and commitment of the home side.

In truth, this was not a classic, Esher did what they had to do, and Barnes will feel that the missed kicks and repeated knock-ons denied them a losing bonus point.

Barnes Women’s 1st XV 72 - 7 Millwall 1st XV

On Sunday Barnes Women’s 1st XV 15 took on Millwall in the glorious sunshine. We hadn’t had a game since 5th December and were raring to go. Millwall have had a tricky season, and are currently rebuilding their team, so we lent them a few players and played a friendly.
Our aim for the day was to practice our basics in preparation for taking on London Welsh next weekend, and we definitely achieved that!
The backs were on fire, and great hands through all of our moves meant we were soon several try’s up. We then focussed on the forwards and spent a grueling 10 mins hammering our way up the pitch through the pods.

Everyone got a fantastic run around and it was great to see the things we have been focusing on in training start to work. Many tries were scored, with a few each for Sophie, Bigland and Taz, and too many more to name. The final score was a lot to 7.

Well done to Jess who played her first game for Barnes, filling in nicely at 13. Special shout out to Meli, who had her first game in the forwards - I think we will be keeping her there!
Forward of the match was Rosie who put in a great performance.

Back of the match was Sophie, who had some great runs and strong hand offs.
This week’s players player was Bigland, she was fantastic on our right wing and super strong with ball in hand.

Barnes 2nd XV 27-21 Esher 2nd XV
Barnes 2s took on a strong Esher 2s team with their loss earlier in the season still fresh in their minds. It was a windy day and Barnes decided to play into the wind in the first half. With the wind behind their backs Esher scored quickly to make the score 0-7, but Barnes responded with some excellent build up play with tries by Alan Carr and Jack Hutchinson making the score 7-12 (the kick added by fullback, Andre Raubenhimer).

With a strong wind to play into at halftime, Barnes knew they needed a huge second half. This they delivered with a game well controlled by Jake Williams and Oli Foster, together with strong running from the Barnes pack (notably Ben Jordan and skipper Freddie Avis). Tries came through Joe Barnes, Freddie Avis and Andrew Denham. Barnes led by 27-7. Esher certainly didn’t lie down and responded with two tries towards the end of the game to make the final score 27-21.

Here are all the fixtures this weekend

Saturday 5th February

• Leicester Lions 1st XV - Barnes 1st XV - 2pm KO

Sunday 6th February
• London Welsh Ladies vs Barnes Women 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Belsize Park Ladies vs Barnes Women 2nd XV - 2pm KO

Juniors’ extravaganza this weekend!

Games start at 10:30am – last game at midday (Colts)

• U12’s - hosting joint training with Quins U12s
• U13’s - 2 x Waterfall Cup matches: A team v Rosslyn Park B team v Whitgift
• U14’s - Waterfall Cup v Dorking
• U16’s - Quins Cup v London Irish (Pitch E)
• Colts - Quins Cup v Esher (1s pitch) - KO Midday

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!