Barnes Rugby Football Club

The rugby player, John Dickinson once said: "The pub is as much a part of rugby as is the playing field."

This is very much the ethos of the Occasionals. As the name suggests, we are the social team at Barnes.

If you cannot train and commit a large amount of time to a club but still want to enjoy a good standard of rugby and the clubhouse banter afterwards then we are the team for you

Off the pitch - we are the embodiment of the social side of the game, attending/taking part in various sporting events and frequently meeting up for drinks - The All Blacks motto: "Subdue and penetrate" takes on a whole different meaning when the Occies are out on the town!

That said, we play in a league in which every other team trains regularly (we are the only team that doesn't), and in which we consistently finish towards the top. A lot of our players have played to a much higher standard, but no longer have the time to commit, due to work, or accidental pregnancies.

We turn out to play running rugby, hit hard, and have a beer afterwards, in an environment in which blazers and ties are burnt on sight, and in which we actually choose to spend time socially together.

So, if any of the below apply:

1. if you can't commit to training (due to work, family or just generally being too old for that sh!t)... but you can't face signing up for a Veterans team just yet;
2. or if you've just moved to London, and are enjoying City life but dismayed to discover your belly now expanding faster than the Chinese economy;
3. if when you hear that a teammate is considering recreating the 'knee ridges' (those used by pro players for line-out lifting) by the manipulation of female sanitary products, you consider him a modern day MacGyver rather than a creepy f_ _ k;
4. if you're too tight to pay for Sky, but want to be able to watch the Premiership and Heiny rugby in a clubhouse after playing yourself;
5. if you like being able to telling girls you play rugby 'at a competitive level';
6. if you don't necessarily want to give up every Sat night drinking pints strained through a teammate's jockstrap, but you like the idea of a few pints after a game and making yourself available for epic Xmas dinners and ad-hoc off-season sessions;
7. if you appreciate having access to timely advice from teammates in the legal profession when you get fished out of the Thames after enjoying said sessions just a little too much;
8. if you like the sound of possible tours to destinations as exotic as Barcelona, Kinsale and ... Newcastle;
9. if you like the sound of a clubhouse where the astroturf grows freely under your sore feet; or
10. if you agree that you're a long time retired;

then the Barnes Occies is the perfect team for you. Sign up now!"

Be awesome...Occasionally.