In the case of Barnes Rugby last weekend, the win some was our Women’s 1st XV beat Battersea Ironsides 38-5 and the Men’s 2nd XV carried on their winning ways, thumping Dorking 50-17. The lose some was our Men’s 1st XV who lost at home to London Welsh 0-7 with their poorest performance of the season, whilst the Outriders had an off day going down to a tidy Belsize Park side 14-49.

The Men’s 1st XV and the 2nd XV Women’s 2nd XV reports are below, WARNING: the Men’s report is not an easy read!

This was our Men’s 1st XV’s second loss on the bounce and this weekend it doesn’t get any better with an away trip to Guernsey. Guernsey is a Jekyll and Hyde side this year, invincible at Footes Lane but much weaker on the road. Make no bones about it, this is a really tough away gig, in and out in a day, a full baying local crowd, playing one of their closest rivals over the last 10 years - Barnes. This game will say an awful lot about the character of our squad, ravaged by injury and illness right now, cometh the hour, cometh the Barnow!

The only home game of the weekend is the Occies against London Media on Saturday,
whilst the Outriders have an away trip to play Horsham. On Sunday, our Women’s 2nd XV travel to Teddington after a break last weekend.

Here’s to a wonderful weekend of Barnow rugby, all played in the Original Spirit we embrace at Barnes.

For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

Here are the fixtures again in detail:

Saturday 13th December Fixtures
• Guernsey Men’s 1st XV vs Barnes Men 1st XV - 2pm KO
• Horsham vs Barnes Outriders - 2pm KO
• Barnes Occies vs London Media - 2pm KO
Sunday 14th December Fixtures
• Barnes Women’s 1st XV vs Bec Belles - 2pm KO
• Teddington Ladies 2nd XV vs Barnes Women’s 2nd XV –
2pm KO

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 0 - London Welsh 1st XV 7 - grim words by Rhino
On a cold afternoon at Barn Elms, it was London Welsh who emerged out of the gloom victorious 0-7 at full time.

London Welsh scored the only points of the game after 15 minutes, a converted try and the rest of the contest was played in no mans land between the 22s.

In an error strewn contest, mainly from Barnes, the quality of rugby was not high, however the Welsh deserved their win because their defence was immense from start to finish.
Barnes huffed and puffed but could not blow any part of the London Welsh down, try as they did. In the end they simply ran out of ideas and Welsh grew more and more confident as the game went on as Barnes never looked like scoring.

With a strong breeze at their backs in the first half, the visitors started the livelier of the two teams and camped themselves inside the Barnes 22 for much of the first ten minutes. After a couple of forays towards the Barnes line, clean ball went along the lively backline and Adam Dunne scored easily, with Matt Hodgson slotting the extras.

After an uneventful stalemate in the rest of the first half, the two sides went in at the break with London Welsh in the front 0-7 up.

With the wind now behind the Barnes pack, the chatter at the break from the home faithful had a confident edge to it, but hopes were dashed in the second period when Barnes just couldn’t break down a stubborn and effective London Welsh defence. On the occasions when Barnes did threaten, they were turned over too easily or spilled the ball, much to the jubilation of the travelling fans.

In the end the Welsh won, and they are building into a side who will be in contention at the end of the season, whilst Barnes will go away and lick their wounds after two defeats on the bounce and look forward to two massive games ahead with two away games in Guernsey and Henley to come before the Christmas break!

Barnes Women’s 2nd XV 38 - 5 Battersea Ironsides 2nd XV - words by Co-Captain Kitty Robinson
On Sunday, Barnes women welcomed Battersea Ironsides 2’s to Barnes Elms. After almost a whole week of rain, the stage was set with a very muddy pitch!

Battersea came out strong with big hits and strong forwards, but it was Barnes who were dominant scoring 4 tries in the first half. These were a mixture of speed on the wing with Atlanta running in two tries and strength in the forwards with Sasha and Kitty powering over with pick and go’s. Liv added the extra points to all of these four tries.

Battersea’s ill discipline, giving away numerous penalties helped keep Barnes on the front foot and going into halftime the score was 28-0.

Battersea put up much more of a battle in the second half, after a great try from Lou soon after the break, Battersea kept us out for long periods and managed to run a try in of their own.