Barnes Women 1st and 2nd XV friendlies vs Belsize Park Women and Bec Belles

Barnes Women 1st XV vs Belsize Park Women 1st XV - report by Ruth Mottershead

On Saturday 11th September Barnes Women's 1st XV played Belsize Park 1st XV in a friendly warm up game before the 22/23 season kicks off. New coach Chris has introduced a new playing system, and the aim of the game for us was to try it out against a live opposition.

The game was controlled by Naomi, who has joined Barnes from Tabard this season, coming in at fly half. At scrum half we had Angie, who has moved in from her usual position on the wing. Between them they bossed us through the new system, and for the first 15 minutes of the game we ran our moves, steadily marching Belsize up the pitch. Eventually we hit two hard forwards pods in a row, then hands through the backs saw fullback Lily score in the corner. A beautiful well worked team try, which gave us all confidence in the new structure.

The game continued with Barnes having most of the possession, as even when Belsize were attacking our forwards managed to turn them over after just a few phases. A few minutes later outside centre Eleanor ran through off a move from a lineout to score under the posts, then convert her own try.

Belsize had some serious possession towards the end of the first half, and managed to pin Barnes back on our own try line. However, our tackling was strong, and we stayed calm and eventually won the ball back. Strong runs up the wing from Lily and Lucy put us back into our own half. This was soon followed by Sasha making a fantastic line break, supported by Taz and Amanda. The ball came out to the backs, and hands down the line again saw Lily go over in the corner. We went into half time 17-0 up.

Everyone was excited to play the second half, as we were all fired up by how well our new game play was working. We attacked hard, and it wasn't long before a run from the centres then an offload to Vice Captain Morv saw her go over in the corner. 22-0 Barnes. Soon after this our forwards managed to draw the Belsize defence yet again, and hands down the line saw winger Zoe score. 27-0.

Our discipline started to fall apart slightly during the second half, and we gave away a lot of penalties, giving Belsize the chance to get back in the game. Our defence was strong however, and we took the ball back. Once again our structure was too much for Belsize, our forwards took us up to the line, then quick hands out saw Lily go over for a hat trick. 32-0.

With 10 minutes to go we resolved to not give away another penalty, which of course led to us giving away 4 in a row. Our defensive line broke down slightly, and Belsize ran through for a very well deserved try and conversion. 32-7.

Barnes kicked off with 2 minutes to go. We managed to regain the ball from the kick off, and played error-free rugby for a good 10 minutes, much to the annoyance of the referee who clearly wanted a reason to end the game. We hadn't finished though, and our forwards crashed us up, with Morv going over for her second. Final score 37-7 to Barnes.

It was a brilliant performance by the whole team, with every single try being a true, well worked team try. Special shout out to Jovi who turned over about 6 scrums as hooker, and Angie who was exceptional in her first game as scrum half for the 1s. I couldn't have been prouder as captain, and I can't wait to see how we do in the league this season.

Congratulations to our two Barnes debutants, Amanda and Naomi.
Forward of the match was Morv
Back of the match Angie

Barnes Women 2nd XV vs Belsize Park Women 2ndXV and Bec Belles - report by Ashley Brandon

Last weekend the Mighty 2s had a chance to run out against Belsize Park women’s 2s and Bec Belles in a pre-season friendly round robin game. After a minute of silence to pay our respects, the team kicked off under blue skies and sunshine.

It was the perfect introduction for no less than 5 players to cut their teeth playing rugby, with a debut try from Liv (Llama) Ponsford in the final 5 minutes of the first game against Belsize Park. The try came off the back of some really well-structured forwards play to create space and she powered through a small gap and about 3 defenders to touch down over the whitewash.

A second try came from Jane Yang on her Barnes debut (she’s been honing her skills all summer playing pre-season games for other London based teams and the extras have really paid off) as she flew down the left wing with astonishing pace to score the only Barnes try of the 2nd game against Bec Belles.

Brand-newbies Tara Minto and Jos Martin used their phenomenal strength to not only power through/over the defence on multiple occasions, but also to keep our scrums tight while we were playing contested scrums. Seasoned player and forward of the match Meli Vilca had a stormer at hooker, throwing some very decent darts at lineout time to set up a strong base for our attack.

Newcomers Julie Loretto and Carys Fowler were huge in defence, chasing down and flattening anyone who dared to be in their path. Kate (Smiler) Weighell was on form, carrying the ball and setting the line for the newbies to follow her lead, while returning Barnes speedster Rochelle Morris-Stewart put in some of the most impressive cover tackles seen on a pitch, dominating her role at fullback. Allie Johnston stayed true to her Canadian heritage, chopping down attackers like a lumberjack and gnawing away at the opposition’s defense like a beaver with her big carries, all whilst playing out of position at centre. We wish Allie a speedy recovery and look forward to having her back on the pitch in a month or two!

Another debutant who put in a huge shift at scrum half was Izzy Jackson (back of the match) who showed some real game sense, slowing play down and settling the team at times when things were a bit frenzied. And last but by no means least, VC Maria Cienfuegos laid down a huge marker for the team to follow with her energy and determination in defense. She rucked and carried and tackled like a machine, setting a massive example to the team as pack leader on how to keep your head up and keep going when the chips are down.

When we were able to get our structures in place, the team was a real force to be reckoned with, and against Belsize Park Women we managed to hold them in their half for about 70% of the game – we can’t wait to convert that sort of territory and possession into scores as the season progresses. It was a very promising 12 – 5 loss to them, and considering we had 5 brand new players, we are happy with that result.

Our game against Bec Belles was a good test for the 2s, with a bit of a masterclass from the Belles on distribution and making the most of outside centres and wingers. We are proud though that they didn’t bust through the middle of our defense to score and it was a true testament that even though they were fresh (we’d already played a match against Belsize Park women when we faced them) and playing in a league above us this season, we can still mix it up with the big guns. The team’s attitude and work rate were huge even as they rolled on their many subs, and not a single Barnes head dropped throughout a fairly comprehensive spanking. Everyone worked for each other and backed one another up and that’s all we could ask for. Thanks to coaches Andy Pickering, Chris Rolfe and Nick Hill for guiding the team through preseason and leading us on Sunday.

Looking to the week ahead, the women’s 2nd XV have the first of our cup games as we face our derby rivals Battersea Ironsides women at Garratt Green on Sunday. Kick off is 2pm and we’d love to have some supporters down to cheer the team on!