Another strong weekend for the adults, with the Men’s 1st XV, 2nd XV and Occies all winning despite the prevailing storms. The 1st XV delivered one of their best performances of the season to blow away Bury 31-5, who must have travelled to Barnes with hope in their heart after taking away the unbeaten record of league leaders TJ’s last time out, but the green and gold were both strong in defence and attack, and the forward pack in particular dominated in the scrum. The 2nd XV, ravaged by injury, won convincingly against Bishop Stortford 31-17, whilst the Occies overturned London Cornish 2nd XV 27-12. On Sunday our Colts ended second best against a polished London Irish Colts team, going down 34-5 in the end. Match reports on all the Men’s matches are below.

This weekend, all the adult teams are in action, bar the Originals, too cold for them, with the highlights being the Men’s 1st XV away at Henley on Saturday and the Women’s 1st XV at home on Sunday against Trojans. Both important fixtures which both sides will be keen to notch up wins.

Henley and Barnes have shared the spoils over recent years but last year they beat us home and away, 39-26 at their place and 22-27 at Barnes, accounting for two out of the only five games we lost last season. This season Henley have performed largely under the radar, they have crept up the table, have lost three games, as we have, and have only won one less game, - 8 to our 9, so there is no doubt that this is going to be another colossal battle: the Hawks at home, wanting to bounce back after they lost 17-0 at TJ’s last week, and the Green and Gold of Barnes, wanting to put Henley away on the back of a good win last week, wanting to avenge the two defeats of last year!

Bring on all of the games, all played in the original spirit that we embrace so much at Barnes and come on Barnow!

For Rugby! For Friendship! For Life!

Michael “Rhino” Whitfield - President Barnes Rugby Club

Saturday 14th December Fixtures
• Henley Men’s 1st XV vs Barnes 1st XV - 3pm
• Henley Men’s 2nd XV vs Barnes Men’s 2nd XV - 2pm KO
• Occies vs Law Society - 2pm KO
Sunday 15th December Fixtures
• Barnes Women 1st XV Trojans – 2pm KO
• Oxford Quins vs Barnes Women 2nd XV - 2pm KO

Barnes Men’s 1st XV 31-5 Bury St Edmunds 1st XV - words by Rhino
Barnes delivered a brilliant performance in atrocious conditions to defeat Bury 31-5 in a dominant performance led by their scrum and their outstanding defence.
With the blustery rain and wind at their backs, Barnes set the tempo after five minutes, second row Joe Murphy crashing over with Will Nicholson converting.

Both sides went at it hammer and tongs for the next twenty minutes, until the powerful Barnes pack drove relentlessly towards the Bury line, the excellent Murphy led the charge but was held up just short and it was the opportunist prop George Dean who seized the moment and scored from close range on 27 minutes, Nicholson added the extras and a penalty giving the home team a 17-0 lead at half time.

With the wind in their favour in the second half, Bury camped in the Barnes 22 and the defence held firm until Euan Rees scored in the 57th minute, with the conversion going wide, Barnes led 17-5.
The Barnes forwards were by now thoroughly enjoying their afternoon and dominated the last twenty minutes, which saw two Bury yellow cards and two brilliant tries from the Barnes pack. The first by number eight Ben Christie on 64 minutes and the second at the death by prop Austin Hay.

Both scores were expertly converted through the eye of needle, by Nicholson from far out wide in gale force winds to give Barnes one of their most convincing wins of the season so far 31-5.

Barnes Occies 27 -12 London Cornish 2nd XV
Despite storm Darragh causing many matches to be called off, the friendly between the Occies and London Cornish 2nd XV cracked on through the wind and all the rain.

Simple rugby was the aim of the day with the forwards proving why we have one of the best packs in our league. Winning scrums and making huge line breaks even in the challenging conditions.

The Occies took the lead and never looked back leading 17-5 into half time.
It was decided between the Captains to only play 20mins in the second half due to both teams preferring to be in the warmth of club house with a pint or two.

This didn't stop the Occies scoring another 2 well worked tries taking the score to 27-5.
The Cornish didn't let up and scored the try of the game with a perfectly placed kick landing into the hands of their outside centre who ran it over the line.
A few injuries crept into the second half with the Occies losing Rich Fenech after his impressive stint as stand in hooker the team.

The game finished 27-12 and I am sure if we played the full 80mins, the gap would been even bigger.

Barnes Raiders 31 - 17 Bishop Stortford 2nd XV - words by Dom Palacio
After two successive victories in the league, Barnes Raiders were buoyant and confident that we could make it three in a row with a home fixture against National One outfit Bishop Stortford.

With the challenges of storm Darragh in full play, the high wind would benefit both teams in both halves, with the wind gusting towards the river Thames, it was obvious that whichever team played the conditions best would ultimately win the game.

As the wider men's senior squad was still suffering from a lack of available forwards due to injuries, it was a case of players becoming “square pegs on round holes” for the day, particularly in the front row.

Despite the obvious handicap of players playing out of position, the intensity and focus of warm-up set the tone for the match ahead.

With Stortford winning the toss, they took advantage of the conditions with the benefit of the wind behind them in the first half.

The first score went to the men from Hertfordshire after 8 minutes, with a superb kick-through, which their left wind pounced upon for the first points of the day.

We soon responded, with a well-worked move just inside the oppo’s half, hitting up 3 consecutive phases of carrying from our forwards, then playing through our backs with lock Ben Isbell crashing over. Our fly-half slotted the extras making it 7-5 to the Raiders.

We would then dominate the remainder of the first half and, despite the conditions, played some superb rugby. Skipper Paul Webb scored another well-worked try at 28 minutes. Our backs continued with their slick passing and hitting, regularly splitting the Stortford defence, wing Charlie Rawlings scored off a set play, from our scrum in the oppos 22, 3 minutes before the end of the half.

However, Stortford would have the last say of the half, with the Raiders conceding a penalty on the edge of their 22, in the centre of the pitch.

At half-time the score was 17-8.
We would continue to dominate in the second half, now with the wind behind us, this aided our attacking play. Stortford however didn’t lie down and defended wave after wave of attacks from the green and gold.

We would score two more tries, both from Stortford errors, both caused by our pressure, one on their 5-metre line a charge down from a box kick, which Matt Humphries (playing prop, although normally a hooker) would pounce upon to score. Replacement fly-half - Kyle Beatie, made a superb intercept, to sprit 60 metres to go over for our 5th and final try of the afternoon, securing our bonus point win.

Stortford had the final stay of the afternoon, 1 minute from full-time, with a well-worked try in open play.

At full time the score was Barnes Raiders 31. Bishop Stortford 2nd XV 17

Man of the Match: JJ Paling at scrum half for 60 minutes, his tempo, cool decision making and laser-like focus, gave us the platform for a superb team victory!