A tough weekend for all Barnes teams, apart from the Men’s 1st XV, who emerged as the only team out of six to win at home to Colchester 36-20 on Saturday. On Friday night, the veritable men of the Originals had their first game of the new season, and came second at Kew Occasionals 34-10, whilst the Occies also lost at Barn Elms to Old Cats on Saturday 24-26.

The story didn’t improve on Sunday, our Women’s 1st XV losing away at Havant 45-0, and our Under 18’s coming a cropper at London Welsh 17-5.

We hope for much better this weekend when we have four adult teams out, with the Men’s 1stXV travelling to Sevenoaks, a side who turned us over last season at their place, 31-27. They played well that day, and we didn’t, they will not have forgotten the smell of victory in a hurry, so, we will need to be at our best to take away the spoils on Saturday, despite the Kents sides poor start to the season having lost to newcomers Havant (who look to be more than comfortable in this league) and to local rivals Tunbridge Juddians and to another local rival Canterbury. Kent Rugby is in the rudest of health by the looks of it!

Our Men’s 2nd XV travel all the way to Richmond to play the Saxons, whilst the Occies travel to the Law Society. On Sunday our Women’s 2nd XV visit Battersea Ironsides to complete the weekend’s activities.

You can read about the Men’s 1st XV game last week below, words kindly crafted by Martin Conway, and also Sasha Breens-Portier has written a match report for the Women’s 1st XV game against Havant.

Also, don’t miss out on the two MASSIVE Chipotle October deals, freshly cooked up for October, full details are below!

Onwards and Upward Barnow!

Good luck to all our teams playing, may they all play in the original spirit we embrace at Barnes Rugby Club.

Michael Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

Here are the details of all of these weekends games:

Saturday 28th September Fixtures
• Sevenoaks 1st XV vs Barnes 1st XV - 3pm KO
• Barnes 2nd XV vs Richmond Saxons - 3pm KO
• Law Society RFC vs Barnes Occies - 3pm KO

Sunday 29th September Fixture

Battersea Ironsides 2nd XV vs Barnes Women’s 2nd XV - 3pm KO

BIG! MASSIVE!HUGE! Chipotle promotion for Barnes Rugby Club
Just like Barnes Rugby, the Chipotle Barnes Rugby Partnership keeps getting tastier!
Here are 2x NEW additional Chipotle deals for Barnes Rugby members, both valid from now until 31st October 2024, which apply to walk-ins and takeaways only at Chipotle Putney High Street.

Here are the two deals:
Barnes Rugby Kit/Stash Buy-One-Get-One-Free Saturdays & Sundays
Wear an item of Barnes Rugby kit/stash (hoodie, polo, hat, rugby shirt, etc) to receive a buy-one-get-one-free deal. E.g. recipients purchase 2x tasty Burrito’s for ~£13.00 (instead of ~£26 value)

Kids Eat Free Mondays
Buy a main and get a free kids meal. Quesadilla or order of tacos with the purchase of 1 main meal - salad, bowl, burrito, quesadilla or order of tacos of equal or greater value.
Enjoy and fill your boots (and your tummys!).

Thank you to Neil Hempsall for driving our relationship with Chipotle to new dizzy heights!

Havant Ladies 1st XV 46-0 Barnes Women’s 1st XV - words by Sasha Breens-Portier
Barnes 1st XV took their first fun bus of the season all the way down to the south coast this week, to Havant RFC.

We arrived extraordinarily early, in what I think may be a first in Barnes women's history! The team were feeling positive, after running some good shapes & working on our intensity in defence at training during the week.

Havant, a new team to us this season, hit us hard out the gate and after some stonking charges from their number 8 they put a couple of tries away in the first ten minutes. Despite this, Barnes kept their heads up with a few key motivators encouraging the group to maintain our structure, energy & of course style. Big carries were made, and a couple of crucial turnovers gave us hope - there was no doubt it was a physical game!

Unfortunately, a yellow card at the end of the first half put the team on the backfoot, with Havant having a great offloading game and breaking through our defence.

The second half saw improvements all over the pitch from us, with our scrums holding steady and our backs utilising their kicking abilities and getting the ball out to their wingers saw a few frustrating, just shy of the line, attacks. We have no doubt these positive plays will definitely be converted into points as we get further into the season. Our defensive line is definitely something to be commended, with the pressure applied throughout the entire 80 minutes causing Havant to lose their nerve & composure on a couple of occasions! It's great to see something that we've been working so hard on in training come to fruition on the pitch.

Regardless of the final score, every person wearing a Barnes shirt on that pitch will be proud to be part of a team that continually picks themselves up (literally & mentally), giving it their all until the final whistle blew. A huge shout out to our coaches for making the trip down with us and Sophia, our physio, who definitely had a lot to contend with on the day!
Forward of the match went to Fiona Murray who made some superb breaks and, ever reliably, bounced around the back row during the scrum.

Back of the match went to the ever-reliable El 'big left boot' Russell fresh back from saving lives & drinking Port in Portugal.

Players Player goes to our old Capitano Ruth Mottershead who was here there & everywhere, backs, forwards you name it, she played it.

Finally, we wish Chedwards a speedy recovery after a very powerful tackle left her on her way to A&E.

Next game for Barnes Women is a cup game for the 2s XV against long-standing rivals Battersea Ironsides 2s on Sunday 29th September!

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 36-20 Colchester 1st XV - words by Martin S Conway
Barnes’s Josh Archer reaped the rewards of a disciplined pack to score 4 tries against a spirited Colchester who were first to score in the 10th minute from a Corey Button penalty. Five minutes later Barnes hooker Archer crossed the whitewash, conversion missed.

Following a 20-meter rolling maul Archer crashed over for his second try in the 21st minute, with flyhalf Jack Martin adding the extras. There followed a scrappy period of play, with many errors from both teams, until the 35th minute when Barnes centre Joe Henry broke free at halfway through to the Colchester 22, then offloaded to the sprinting winger Jacques Birch who raced to the try line. Martin converted to make it a half time score of 19-3.

After the restart, Colchester were first to score again after several phases inside Barnes 22 with the ball slipped to replacement Daniel Whiteman to dot down. Replacement Finlay Creighton converted for the extra 2 points. A few minutes later Colchester took advantage of some uncharacteristic defensive errors from Barnes resulting in their winger Mike Stanway scoring to take the visitors within 4 points of the home side at 19-15.

This woke Barnes up and shortly after Archer was again at the back of a maul to bag his hattrick of tries, Martin added the extras. Colchester refused to lie down and bounced straight back with a charge to the corner, and, after some quick hands, centre Jacob Bodkin scored. With the conversion missed, Barnes led by 6 points, 26-20. The Barnes pack fully controlled both the lineouts and the set pieces, and from another forward led attack, the prolific Archer scored his fourth try.

In the closing stages Barnes fullback Harvey Graham added another try for Barnes making the final score 36-20, a scrappy win against a spirited Colchester side, but we will take the 5 points and move on Sevenoaks next week.