As the Autumn cold season arrives in earnest so Barnes Men's 1st XV coughed and spluttered their way through a 33-21 win over Havant to give some form of joy after the heartache of losing to Guernsey the week before. Next they face much improved Canterbury, who are one place behind us in 5th place in National League 2 East and they will be a real handful at their place this weekend. Director of Rugby, Jack Heald, will be looking for a much improved performance from a side yet to find its true character after the retirement of so many stalwarts - we won't be able to use that excuse for much longer and this team of talented players need to settle and deliver to their undoubted ability. Whilst the 1's travel away to Canterbury this weekend, our 2nd XV are back in action at Barn Elms this weekend against Cambridge with a 2:30pm kick off.

Our women's teams had mixed fortunes, the 1's just going down 17-12 away to Blackheath but our 2's winning 10-5 at Barn Elms against Kilburn Cosmos. There are no women's games this weekend.

The Occies had a roller coaster of a high scoring game against Farnham coming out 2nd best 49-28, they play Old Cranleighians at Barn Elms with a 2:30pm kick off.

Here's a summary of this weekend's games and we hope to see you pitchside supportiung your Barnow - For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Saturday 26th October Fixtures
• Canterbury 1st XV vs Barnes 1st XV - 3pm KO
• Barnes Men’s 2nd XV vs Cambridge - 2.30pm KO
• Barnes Occies vs Old Cranleighans 2.30pm KO

Michael Rhino Whitfield - President Barnes RFC

Blackheath 17-12 Barnes Women 1st XV - words by Captain Naomi Roycroft
Sunday saw Barnes Women’s 1st XV make a heroic trek from West to East London to challenge Blackheath, with one individual circulating South Kensington for over an hour, others taking the tourist route past the London Eye & Big Ben. Arriving to some tropical winds & sideways rain, the team took to the pitch. It’s fair to say that Blackheath came out with a bang putting in some mammoth hits from the off, taking the first points only momentarily after kick off. Barnes reacted & stepped up to the physical challenge, moving off the line to block Blackheath’s running lines, time & time again. Despite best efforts Blackheath scored what was frankly a wonderful try, moving the ball through almost all of the hands & scoring in the corner. Half time saw the score at half time 12-0.

Barnes started the second half with some reinvigorated energy, utilising our set pieces to see El cut through the line to take the first try, taking the conversion & stealing us some well-earned 7 points. We continued to pin Blackheath in their own half & after what felt like a zillion phases, Ruth crossed the line to take us to 17-12. With one try in it, Blackheath stepped up their game, but Barnes responded & held up at least 3 tries. A couple of missed forward passes from the ref, left Barnes just shy of the win away in the East. Full Time 17-12.
Forward of the match went to Ruth Mottershead who showed just how much of an all-round legend she is playing in the forwards, the backs & stepping into 10 for a short period.
Back of the match went to our reliable boot of Eleanor Russell who revamped the Barnes energy with a half length pitch try early in the second half.

Players Player went to our very own Vice Captain Sasha for some brutal tackling, great direction to the pack & some all round snazzy passes.

A week off for the 1’s next week; with our next game at Home Saturday 2nd November against Hampstead, with a Bake sale pre-game to raise funds for the Women's team & following a game a super social watching England v NZ. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!

Barnes Women’s 2nd XV 10-5 Kilburn Cosmos - words by Alex Walker
It was a wet and windy Sunday for the second run out of the 2’s this season, and our first league match. The conditions made ball handling difficult for both sides, and the game was scrappy throughout.

Kilburn were much improved from last season and kept the 2’s on their toes, with both sides scoring a try in the first half. The second half saw Barnes score a try early on and then the battle was on to maintain discipline and concentration whilst tired.

With some playing in different positions, newer players and 3 debuts for Barnes, including Jess McLean-Wright and 2 others from Imperial College too, Jess Wilcox and Elizabeth Hamman, the 2’s showed their grit and determination and the game has given us plenty of work-ons for the season ahead.

When we focused on our processes, we had some good periods of play, with both scores being tried by the heavy hitting forwards Fiona Murray and Lou Reddin.

It was a match that demonstrated the resilience of the 2’s and special mention goes to:
Forward of the Match went to Lou Reddin, for relentless tackling, great reads of the scrums and a brilliant try.

Back of the Match went to Tess Ryan, for her intelligent read of the game and ground gaining breaks.

Players Player went to Jess Mclean-Wright, who made plenty of hard hitting carries and ran some solid lines.

Barnes Colts 24 - 5 Old Ruts Colts - words by Chris Williams
Barnes RFC Colts beat a doughty Old Ruts Colts team 24-5 in the Surrey Cup, despite us only having 5 recognised forwards in the team due to the start of schools’ half term. In the circumstances, the retention and recycling of quick ball was magnificent!

The team displayed huge desire, skill and effort to overcome strong competition on a moist Sunday afternoon at BEST. The Colts got ahead, held their nerve with some stoic defence, then pulled away with two solo tries from our fly half and Number 8.

Most pleasingly the players got direct feedback from both the referee and physio on how polite and respectful they were. This is what Barnes is all about. When you apply core rugby values and behaviours, the performances and results follow.

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 33-21 Havant 1st XV - words by Rhino
In the first 40 minutes Barnes were uncharacteristically sloppy, far too many errors in the line out and with poor handling too. With 25 minutes gone, Havant broke the deadlock, Jack Phillips opened the scoring on the half hour and led 0-5.

Barnes had several scrum penalties but, on each occasion, fluffed their lines and their advantage. In a first half lacking much quality rugby, Havant led at the break, after Jacob Knight added a penalty which gave the visitors a well deserved 0-8 lead at the break.

The half time team chat must have been quite tasty because Barnes came out of the traps fast, scoring twice in ten minutes. With the Barnes line out functioning well, there was plenty of quick ball off the top, and the first try for Barnes was scored by Paul O’Dell two minutes in, and the second try came four minutes later. It followed another good line out drive which saw the ball shipped quickly to try-machine Jacques Birch, who sprinted through and touched down his own chip through. Jack Martin converted to make it 12-5 to Barnes.

Havant clawed themselves back into the lead 12-14 with 20 minutes left through two Knight penalties, all coming on the back of a host of Barnes errors and two yellow cards. Five minutes later hooker Ethan Sikorski scored from a well-worked driving maul, Jack Martin converting to give the home team a 19-15.

With five minutes left, Havant scored, takin the lead 19-21, ghosts of recent last minute losses to both Dorking and Guernsey weighed heavy on the home team but, with two minutes left Barnes went for the catch and drive again and were awarded a penalty try, retaking the lead 26-21. There would be no heartache this week however and fly-half Jack Martin added the icing on the cake, scoring again in the last minute, and converting, to make the final score 33-21. Havant will consider themselves most unfortunate, Barnes will consider themselves most lucky!

Blackheath 17-12 Barnes Women 1st XV - words by Captain Naomi Roycroft
Sunday saw Barnes Women’s 1st XV make a heroic trek from West to East London to challenge Blackheath, with one individual circulating South Kensington for over an hour, others taking the tourist route past the London Eye & Big Ben. Arriving to some tropical winds & sideways rain, the team took to the pitch. It’s fair to say that Blackheath came out with a bang putting in some mammoth hits from the off, taking the first points only momentarily after kick off. Barnes reacted & stepped up to the physical challenge, moving off the line to block Blackheath’s running lines, time & time again. Despite best efforts Blackheath scored what was frankly a wonderful try, moving the ball through almost all of the hands & scoring in the corner. Half time saw the score at half time 12-0.

Barnes started the second half with some reinvigorated energy, utilising our set pieces to see El cut through the line to take the first try, taking the conversion & stealing us some well-earned 7 points. We continued to pin Blackheath in their own half & after what felt like a zillion phases, Ruth crossed the line to take us to 17-12. With one try in it, Blackheath stepped up their game, but Barnes responded & held up at least 3 tries. A couple of missed forward passes from the ref, left Barnes just shy of the win away in the East. Full Time 17-12.
Forward of the match went to Ruth Mottershead who showed just how much of an all-round legend she is playing in the forwards, the backs & stepping into 10 for a short period.
Back of the match went to our reliable boot of Eleanor Russell who revamped the Barnes energy with a half length pitch try early in the second half.

Players Player went to our very own Vice Captain Sasha for some brutal tackling, great direction to the pack & some all round snazzy passes.

A week off for the 1’s next week; with our next game at Home Saturday 2nd November against Hampstead, with a Bake sale pre-game to raise funds for the Women's team & following a game a super social watching England v NZ. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!

Barnes Women’s 2nd XV 10-5 Kilburn Cosmos - words by Alex Walker
It was a wet and windy Sunday for the second run out of the 2’s this season, and our first league match. The conditions made ball handling difficult for both sides, and the game was scrappy throughout.

Kilburn were much improved from last season and kept the 2’s on their toes, with both sides scoring a try in the first half. The second half saw Barnes score a try early on and then the battle was on to maintain discipline and concentration whilst tired.

With some playing in different positions, newer players and 3 debuts for Barnes, including Jess McLean-Wright and 2 others from Imperial College too, Jess Wilcox and Elizabeth Hamman, the 2’s showed their grit and determination and the game has given us plenty of work-ons for the season ahead.

When we focused on our processes, we had some good periods of play, with both scores being tried by the heavy hitting forwards Fiona Murray and Lou Reddin.

It was a match that demonstrated the resilience of the 2’s and special mention goes to:
Forward of the Match went to Lou Reddin, for relentless tackling, great reads of the scrums and a brilliant try.

Back of the Match went to Tess Ryan, for her intelligent read of the game and ground gaining breaks.

Players Player went to Jess Mclean-Wright, who made plenty of hard hitting carries and ran some solid lines.