After the brilliance across the club the previous weekend, we came down to earth with a bloody great bump last weekend, all four adult sides going down in a variety of ways.

The Men's 1st XV travelled to Guernsey on Friday in preparation for their game against Guernsey. After a bright start, Barnes lead 0-19 as the first half drew to a close, but the second half was a very different affair, and Guernsey emerged victorious 28-26 in the end.

The Men's 1st XV took a pasting at Barn Elms 31-76 against Bishop Stortford's 2nd XV, whilst the Occies lost in a gutting 31-36 defeat to London Exiles at Barn Elms. Barnes Women's 2nd XV completed the picture of woe, losing narrowly at home on Sunday 12-17.
The Men's 1st XV report, and the Women's 2nd XV reports are below.

This weekend the Men's 1st XV entertain Bury St Edmunds, who have been through a serious resurgence of late, winning their last five games on the bounce, including a very impressive 27-21 victory over the equally impressive Leicester Lions last time out, who comprehensively cleaned us out a couple of weeks back. And our last game against BSE was very very painful, when we failed to get off the bus earlier in the season and ended up on the wrong side of a 63-25 spanking. Bury are a club we get on very well with, but this weekend we need to be brutal on the pitch, and not just friendly in the bar!

There are lots of Barnow games for you to enjoy this weekend:

Saturday 19th February

• Barnes 1st XV - vs Bury St Edmunds – KO 2.30pm
• Oxford University vs Barnes 2nd XV – KO 2.30pm
• Warlingham vs Occies - KO 2.30pm

Sunday 20th February

• Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Bec Belles - 2.30pm KO

Let's hope for a return to winning ways and, if you can, please do get down and support the Men's 1st XV and the Women's 2nd XV in their two home games this weekend.

Onward and Upwards Barnow!

Here's to another weekend of brilliant Barnes RFC rugby.

Michael "Rhino" Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC

Guernsey Raiders 28 - 26 Barnes Men’s 1st XV

Apart from the score, we had a very enjoyable two day tour to Guernsey, always hospitable in the clubhouse, our hotel and in the local hostelries, but not-so-much on the pitch, where Coach Jordy Reynolds, continues to successfully plan his opposition’s downfall.

We had a hysterical evening after the game, when we discovered that Liberate, Guernsey’s very own LGBTQ charity, were having their annual dinner in the same hotel that we were staying in, you will never see two more initially diverse and eclectic groups of humans in your life! But, as the evening wore on, it was brilliant to see 40 Barnes souls, decked out in Barnes blazers and ties, dancing and singing with the glamorous Liberate guests, all dressed to the nines. Never before have I seen such big hair and dangerously high heels in my life!

For any other team venturing to the island, I would urge all of you that have away games to go mob- handed and fill your lives with fun and banter!

In the game, Raiders made a number of mistakes which, in the first half, our backs, brilliantly lead by a rampant Jonny Burden at fly-half, took full advantage of.

Jordan Souter was brilliant in that first period too, and one of his two tries merits consideration in our “try of the season” competition. Sandwiched in between Jordan’s two tries our forwards were also on song, hooker Alex March burrowing over the line to score himself. Despite not really ever hitting top gear, we strangely found ourselves leading 0-19 after 26 minutes, surely it could only get better? But it didn’t.

A cheap shot, late hit on Jonny Burden, who was having his best game since securing the 10 berth, saw him go off with concussion, never to return. Right on half-time, James Bloxham, was yellow carded, and we conceded a try and as we headed down the tunnel (yes there is one in Guernsey) our big lead was reduced to 7-19, and Guernsey definitely had the wind in their sails.

With Coach Jordy’s halftime instructions to “screw them upfront”, Guernsey’s excellent front five did just that, taking full advantage of the superior numbers on the pitch to score twice, both times from poorly defended catch and drives. In the blink of any eye, a further score saw the islanders take the lead 21-19.

For the rest of the game, we were strangled by their forwards and, the little possession we did get we squandered through too many uncharacteristic knock-ons. We did have a couple of chances to win the game at the death: a long-distance penalty, which Rob Kirby pushed agonisingly wide, and with a simple run in went begging out wide as we knocked on again. So, we really have only ourselves to blame for losing this one.

But despite all of the disappointment, we still had great fun after the game, and for many of our young bucks it was their first experience of a “tour” albeit it a short one, and that disappointment soon dissipated into mellow goodwill to all rugby folks, and we will never forget the Liberate folks celebrating so brilliantly with us either! Rugby memories are most definitely made of weekends like this one!

Barnes Men's 2nd XV 31 - 76 Bishop Stortford 2nd XV

Barnes took on a strong Bishop Stortford on Saturday in a re-arranged Shield League game. Despite recent form, Barnes had lost a number of key men to the squad and to the inevitable COVID, which meant the task was a challenging one. Bishop Stortford looked like a quality outfit from the start and stormed to a lead they would never lose. Despite this dominance, Barnes still scored 31 points, and secured a bonus point, but this was a small consolation to the emphatic 76 points that Bishops Stortford scored. Barnes 2's will be looking for a much improved performance on Saturday 16th April when they travel to Bishop Stortford for the return game.

Barnes RFC Women's 2nd XV 12- 17 Ruislip Ladies RFC

Barnes women braved some pretty awful weather last Sunday, to play our league fixture against Ruislip RFC Ladies. The conditions were rough, and the game was attritional, to the point of being cut short due to a severe ankle injury for one of Ruislip’s players. We wish Alice all the best in her recovery and hope to see her back out on the pitch soon. A huge thanks goes to Aedan, our physio for his support on the day, it was a very tough shift and we certainly kept him busy!

From the kick off, we charged up the pitch and pushed hard at Ruislip’s resolute defence, staying stuck just in their half for a good 5 minutes. Even that early on in the game there were plenty of scrums, thanks to the slippery and blustery conditions. But it wasn’t long until a few big hits up the right of the pitch by our sturdy forwards set up a bit of space for us to unleash our backs. Goose opened up the scoring tally, with a big run around a few defenders out wide to touch down in the left corner. The wind was vile, and we weren’t able to convert the kick.

Ruislip were fired up and following another 10 minutes or so of grunt work from their forwards in the scrums, and a really promising kicking game from both sides, Ruislip managed to gather and attack out on our right wing. Unfortunately, a missed call for a clear foot over the touch line allowed their runner to scrape past our defence and dot the ball down and it was game on at 5-5.

Some difficult decisions, which could have gone either way, put us on the backfoot a few times, but a few minutes before half time, a riled-up Sophie took on about 8 defenders, twisting and jinking, putting in some solid hand offs and eventually cutting through a wall of maroon shirts to score under the posts for a much needed 7 points.

The weather seemed to get worse during the half time break, and as we set up for the second half, the wind and rain felt like needles stabbing at our faces. A small lapse in concentration on our part just after the restart meant that Ruislip were able to again cross the whitewash to narrow the score to 12 – 10 to Barnes. With conditions deteriorating fast, we made a few changes to get some fresh legs onto the pitch, and although we were clearing our lines well, and pushing them back into their half, Ruislip showed some real grit in pummelling their way back into our half. After a huge effort on our try-line, where we managed so well to hold them off for a 3- or 4-minute spell, we ultimately succumbed to the pressure, and Ruislip crossed over once again to bring the scores up to 12 – 17.

Not long after the restart, one of Ruislip’s players went down with an ankle injury, which in the conditions meant that the right thing to do was to stop the game at that point so that she could get the necessary treatment she needed. While we were confident that we would have been able to claw a win in the remaining 7 minutes, compassion for the players who had just seen their teammate go down with a significant injury and the worsening conditions meant that it was a no brainer to make the call to end the game there and then.

We ALWAYS play in the original spirit of the game no matter the scoreline.

It was a difficult and frustrating result to take, considering the teams were so evenly matched throughout, but we’ve got a big game ahead this weekend against our friends Bec Belles, so we’ll dust ourselves off and go again. We’ll take the positives from last week into Sunday’s game and build on them.

And there were some really positive things to come out of the game. We managed to get two new players on the pitch for their first games in the beautiful green and gold - welcome to the family Jenn P and Livia H! It’s so good to know that even this far into the season that we’re still bringing in new talent.

Another newcomer, Bailey, had an absolute stormer of a game, smashing everything that moved and earning herself forward of the match, while Sophie’s game management, and sheer brute force earned her recognition as back of the match. Players’ player was very much deserved by Eleanor, one of our fantastic Imperial College recruits, who had a really impressive game with some brilliant carries and massive tackles, spotting gaps and opportunities and taking them with real intent.

On the whole, our pack has really started to work well in terms of running lines, support at the breakdowns and implementing more of the little tweaks we’ve been working on at training - we’ll only continue to improve as the season goes on. The backs did an amazing job of looking after the ball despite the horrendous conditions. Some of those brave attacking runs were sensational, and we hope to see them get more opportunities to show us their class in the weeks ahead. And a massive thank you has to go out to all the Barnes Women’s 1st XV, and injured players who stood out in those positively feral conditions to cheer their squad mates on - we really appreciated it and we definitely fed off your energy!

As it’s another home game next Sunday, we hope to see as many spectators as possible to cheer the women on! Kick-off is at 2.30pm at the Barn Elms Sports Trust pitches, opposite the clubhouse.

There aren’t any 6 nations games this weekend either so there’s no excuses for not getting along to the club to support!