We were looking forward to five adult games last week but the malaise that is affecting many community rugby clubs meant that three of our opposition teams cried off, both Women’s teams at the last minute which meant that we lost the hire cost of two pitches. Not great. It need’s addressing by the RFU or we are going to see a raft of rugby clubs go under, never to be seen again, something I intend to address directly!

However, the two games that did go ahead both resulted in wins for the Men’s section, our Occies winning on the road at Farnham 15-29 and the 1st XV winning, convincingly in the end after a turgid first half, 28-3. A full report on the 1st XV game is below.

This weekend the Women’s 2nd XV cup game has already seen the opposition cry off, so we are looking for a replacement fixture, the women are desperate to play!

The three fixtures we do have on for certain are crackers. Barnes Men’s 1st XV travel to play Tonbridge Juddians, currently in 7th place in National League 2 East, having only lost one game less than us. Whilst we are up in joint first place, we are under no illusions that this is our toughest game of the season, bar the blip against Henley, when we simply didn’t turn up. This will be a real test of how far we have come this season, my favourite memory is current skipper Josh Davies kicking a penalty to win at their place in with the last play of the game, let’s hope it is a similar result this weekend. Kick off at The Slade is at 3pm. I am sure there will be some room on the coach if you fancy travelling with the players to watch the game.

The Raiders, our 2nd XV travel to Chinnor to play their 2nd XV. This will not be an easy game for our lads, but they are in good spirits following a strong performance against a strong Rams team a couple of weeks back, their kick-off is at 1:30pm.

And finally, fresh from their winning ways, Barnes Occies are the only side at home this Saturday, taking on old rivals Bec Old Boys at Barn Elms with a 3pm kick off. How about wandering to support them? They would love it!

Onwards and Upwards Barnow!

Here’s to a great weekend of rugby, all played in the original spirit we so love at Barnes RFC.

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - Chairman Barnes RFC

Match report - Barnes 1st XV 28 – 3 Rochford Hundred
This was the proverbial gamed of two halves, the first one was error-strewn by Barnes with a multitude of knock-ons and penalties, which did not help our cause.

To be fair to the visitors, Rochford forced many of the errors, their larger pack were muscular in defence, caused all sorts of bother at the break down, and were downright annoying - not letting us settle at all, not very fair!

As Barnes traipsed off at half time 6-0 up, courtesy of two Simon Keller penalties, we looked fed up, thoroughly miserable and disappointed in their performance, it is fair to say the sizeable home crowd were equally bemused by that first 40 minutes, and we probably knocked the ball on about 15 times, in fact more times than we have in total in our previous six games this season.

The half time dressing room chat was, I would say, was focussed and direct.

Despite Rochford narrowing the lead to 6-3 just as the 2nd half started, the Essex lads were always chasing the Barnes shadows after that.

Barnow found their rhythm and pace and, as the gloom and drizzle lifted, and the sun came out, so did the performance of the green and gold.
The large Rochford pack clearly tired as we approached the final quarter of the game, and that, combined with a vastly improved Barnes performance, created our three try scoring opportunities.

Barnes spent much of the second half on the front foot, attacking in the Rochford half, and gradually turning the screw on Rochford, the result of this pressure being multiple penalties against the visitors.
From one such penalty, Barnes skipper Josh Davies had the presence of thought to tap-and-go, and from his break was able to off load sweetly to winger Paul Webb to score after 50 minutes, Whilst the conversion was missed, Barnes lead extended to 11-3 and we continued to apply pressure on the visitors. Simon Keller added a penalty after 55 minutes to extend our lead to 14-3.

Paul Webb then made a searing break, and, from the breakdown, Josh Davies passed to flanker Rory Kassapian who scored on 59 minutes. With Simon Keller again on target, the extras made it 21-3 to Barnes, and we were nearly out of sight.

The introduction from the bench of Pete “The Meat” Weightman, in hiss last game before a sabbatical in New Zealand, added to Rochford’s woe, as he tackled the opposition’s tiring back line relentlessly, continually driving them back in the tackle. In attack Pete also made big yardage gains, and from one break offloaded to George Makepeace-Cubitt, who in turn slipped the ball back to Webb, who passed on to skipper Josh Davies from 45 metres out. Josh still had a lot of work still to do to elude the chasing defenders, but he outpaced the defence to score on 68 minutes.

With Simon Keller again successful with the conversion, Barnes increased their lead to 28-3. Rochford tried to rally but it was too late, and Barnes emerged with a nuggety win from a scrappy contes.

Farnham III 15 – 29 Barnes Occasionals - words by Co-Captain Rory Hogan
Saturday was Barnes Occasionals first away match of the season, and what a cracker it turned out to be!

Trekking across to Farnham with a massive squad of 25 really shows that the rebuild of this side is in full effect.

The game kicked off at a ferocious pace, with each team not giving an inch, Farnham got an early penalty under the sticks to go 3-0 up. The Occies responded immediately with a barrelling carry five yards out by Ed Scott-Bowden, making his long-awaited return to rugby after a two-year hiatus.

With the conversion missed, the score was 3-5 to the Occies. The Occies were really sucking diesel with massive carries from Dominic Hill, Dermot Cavanagh and Occies debutant Kyle Coulter, now known as the “Welsh Bull”, all of them giving us great go forward ball, which released Jonny Cole for our second try, which he also converted, extending our lead to 3-12.

The Occies kept the pressure on, and Ed Scott-Bowden carried over for his second try of the game, converted again by Jonny Cole.

Farnham, with their backs against the wall, fought back hard in the last 5 minutes of the 1st half, but a great turnover by Alex Worth on the death of half time meant the Occies went in at halftime 3-19 up.

As I said in the huddle to the lads at half time, the 10 minutes of the 2nd half is the most important period of the match!

We had to stamp our authority on the game, and take it out of reach of Farnham, who would most definitely get a second wind.

We couldn’t have had a better start, receiving the ball from the kick-off, we patiently worked through three or four phases, making it over the gain line each time we carried, our backs were then unleashed, and Etienne Gomm cruised over the try line, making the score 3-24.

Alex Worth cemented his award of man of the match with a gazelle-like break from the halfway line, only to be finally taken down 5 meters from the Farnham line, which prevented a further Occies score.

With such a big squad, the ethos of the Occies is that everyone plays, so it was time to bring on the “Finishers”, as Eddie Jones would say.

This brought much needed energy, but with so many changes there was naturally a period when the players had to gel, which allowed Farnham to counter and score two tries of their own, reducing our lead to 15-24.

Now back in rhythm, the Occies rallied, and Niall Boyle, who had been tenacious at outside centre, side-stepped his way over the whitewash to cement a key win away 15-29, and keep the Barnes Occasionals joint top of the league table. Happy days!