Medway Ladies vs Barnes Ladies

Barnes Ladies hopped on a fun bus over to Medway for our first 15s game of the season with our old friends from last seasons league.

It was a lovely warm day, and the dry ground made for a good running game although the forwards certainly put in a big shift. We also got to show off our lovely new kit provided by sponsor Macai Projects Ltd - we might not have won the game but we certainly looked good while we played!

There were some superb scores, two by our winger Circé who managed to snipe down the sides of the pitch on both occasions following some good forwards crash-ball in the middle of the pitch and solid handling from the backs to swing the ball out wide. We also had a big score from new club member Hester who powered through a wall of Medway forwards to cross the whitewash.

Unfortunately, whilst we did a good job of keeping the Medway ladies at bay for most of the first half, our fitness started to wain in the second half and Medway managed to run good lines through and around us, gaining momentum with each score.

All in all, it was a great day, we had a good few players on the pitch who were new to the team, some of whom were playing their first ever proper 15s rugby game and we couldn't have been happier with their performance. Welcome to Hester, Neda, Caro, Maz, Eleanor, and Lily who pulled on the green and gold hoops for the first time.

Our 'back of the day' was Jen, doing a fantastic job of directing the game at 10 and tackling players many times her size without fear. 'Forward of the match' was Hester for her fantastic tackling and powerful charges at the defense, and our 'player's player' as voted by the team was Maz, for some superb tackling and non-stop work on the pitch...if only we'd known you'd broken your foot!

It was a great way to start our warm-up for the season ahead, with Medway making us feel extremely welcome at the club. We hope to return the favour and have them down to Barnes as the season progresses as we'd love to see how we kick on and improve with more games under our belts and bring in more of our new players.

We'll be hosting an Inner Warrior event this weekend which aims to encourage women who haven't played before to give rugby a go, as well as to draw players who may have strayed from the game back into the mix. The day starts at 11am where we'll work through basic skills and rules of the game. Following that we'll be playing an exhibition friendly match against Beckenham RFC Ladies, which will kick off at 2pm - come down to the club to watch the game - it should be a good one!

Our first league fixture will be a home game against High Wycombe Belles at the Barn Elms Sports Trust pitches at 2pm on the 10th September.

If you'd like to know more you can e-mail us at: barnesrfcladies@gmail.com
Or you can follow us on social media: Twitter - @barnesladiesRFC / Instagram - barnesladiesrfc