Before I let you all know of our plans for next season, it is important to recognise a few retiring players, along with a few moving on to pastures new, all of whom have served us so well over a number of seasons.

This list includes Ien (also known as Len!), Pete the Meat, Woody, Cal Watson, Miles Lloyd, Branners and Ryan Seabright – all of whom have been excellent servants of the club over a long period of time.

Thanks lads again for your fantastic commitment to me and Barnes Rugby.

Our fantastic leader Josh Davies has also hung his boots up, however it’s going to be great welcoming him to the back-room staff as our Strength and Conditioning Coach and an Assistant Coach.

With such experienced players departing, planning started very early to ensure that the gaps were plugged with high quality replacements, who will be able to help us continue to thrive in National League 2 East, and beyond.

It is with delight that we welcome Ross Kane and Simon Linsell into our coaching team, who will both play and coach next season. Ross and Simon have bundles of experience from having played at the highest levels of club rugby, and we look forward to seeing them take our set piece onto another level.

James Love, former London Scottish, Ealing and Plymouth player, will be joining the squad as an Attack Coach. James, after retiring from professional rugby, is working at Dr Challoner’s School in Amersham. He has a passion for attacking rugby! James is looking forward to putting his own stamp of quality and flair on the Barnes attack next season.

Alongside these new additions, Tom Burkett will join Dom Palacio to work with the senior squads as well as continuing to develop our thriving Men’s 2nd XV. Tom's an up-and-coming Coach who’s worked with various teams in and around Surrey over the past few years, and he’ll be a great addition to developing our deep squad!

I also want to personally thank Mark Matzopolous and Chris Browne for their time and commitment they have put in over the past few seasons that they have been in the Barnes RFC set up. The hours they have put in have left the club in a better place than it was when they joined us. This contribution has not gone unnoticed by everyone in the club, especially me.

Retention of our players is encouraging at this stage, with a few new additions already signed.

It has only been just over a week since our last game of the season against Esher (what a game that was to finish on!) and I am already looking forward to next season. We have a testing schedule ahead already planned for August, with games against CS Rugby, Blackheath, Wimbledon and Rosslyn Park, which will set us up well for another year of National League rugby with, we hope, a fit, heathy and competitive squad.

Chris Rolfe continues as Women’s Head Coach after yet another successful season. Newly promoted Barnes have been competitive within their new league in the Championship, winning 9 of their games out of 18, an excellent first season at this level. The 1st XV was lead brilliantly again by Captain Ruth Mottershead, her fifth and final season before moving with her career to Belfast, she has been a fantastic leader and ever-present player in her time with Barnes, and much of our success is as a result of her drive and determination. Like Josh, we will miss you and look forward to seeing you back in the clubs when you are back in the UK. I also want to congratulate the Women’s 2nd XV, lead by Rosie Price, for coming second in their new league, with promotion still a possibility, a fantastic year for 1st and 2nd XV’s in the Women’s section.

Finally, thank you to everyone across the club for your for support this season. We accumulated 106 league points in the 1st XV, our highest points tally ever, and 2nd place in National 2 East for the second season running, and we won the Surrey Cup. None of this could be achieved without a highly competitive 2nd XV, who competed so effectively in the Halbro Raging Bull League, which contains 2nd XV’s from the Championship, Nat 1 and of course other Nat 2 sides. They finished 4th in this league and this level of rugby meant that players called into the 1st XV were ready for 1st XV rugby when the call came. And it did, regularly, with over 50 people playing in the 1st XV last season.

So last season was our greatest season, so far, bring on next season!

Jack Heald – Director of Rugby