| Match Reports |
| Written by Martin Alford |
| Wednesday, 30 September 2009 17:43 |
|
23rd Jan 10 - North Bristol IVs 5 vs 8 Bristol Barbarians IIs A victory with the last kick of the game Report by Brendan Murph Well done Joshie, you had to get one eventually!Another victory but blimey we left it late The 2nd team took to the field with another new look side against what appeared to be a strong North Bristol outfit in this merit table clash. Knowing that every game is a must win for us to secure the title away from BAC some frantic phone calls eventually led to 16 willing players making the trip over to Almondsbury. The first half finished 0-0 thanks to some splendid tackling from the Barbarians and after weathering the storm a half time gee up from captain John Bane sent us out for the 2nd half with a positive attitude that the game was ours for the taking. Alas, in the first five minutes of the second half the barbs gave away some silly penalties and slack defense let the North Bristol backs to exploit the overlap allowing their inside centre to crash over, conversion missed and North Bristol are 5-0 up. That, however was really their last attack of the game and the rest of the game the Barbarians camped in the North Bristol half. Josh stepped up and missed 3 difficult penalty attempts before eventually the pressure showed and number 8 James Pithouse crashed over for his 2nd try in consecutive weeks, conversion missed and the score 5-5 with 20 minutes left. Dale Rhodes was unlucky to have his try unsighted by the referee after his other winger Charlie Harvey collected a clearance kick and ran 40 yards before chipping the ball into the corner for Dale to touchdown, only to be adjudged over the deadball line. Further infringements lead to a multitude of penalties in the North Bristol '22 however a crash ball from Dan Burnell, snap balls from other forwards, numerous scrums and a cross kick penalty to our wingers were all either held up or fumbled in the wet conditions. With only 40 seconds left on the clock the Barbarians were awarded another penalty 5 metres from the right hand touchline and up stepped Josh Briggs to slot his kick over for the win and the final whistle. Well done to everyone in what was probably the toughest challenge the 2nds have had this season. Definitely a deserved victory and with a bit more compusure and better passing and catching we should maybe have won by 4 or 5 tries rather than 3 points, as John Bane says he likes to keep the game interesting. 1 Stevie White (40 Richard Chivers 2 Dan Burnell 3 Jamie Newplayer (65 Stevie White) 4 Shane Manners 5 Tony Hand 6 Owen Panton (70 Jamie Newplayer) 7 Sam Currey 8 James Pithouse 9 Gary Honeyfield 10 John Bane 11 Charlie Harvey 12 Brendan Murphy 13 Joe Minett 14 Dale Rhodes 15 Josh Briggs
16 Richard Chivers
Scorers:- Try: James Pithouse Penalty: Josh Briggs 16th Jan 10 - Gordano 29 vs 7 Bristol Barbarians A game of rugby at last Report by Brendan Murphy Barbarians start 2010 campaign with away match at promotion contenders Gordano. A game of rugby at last With the last 3 games being called of due to weather and the x-mas break in between it seemed like an age since the barbars had last played. With a strong side taking the pitch for barbarians, aiming to cause an upset against 2nd placed Gordano. And for the first 15 minutes barbarians were the better team with excellent work at the break down providing the backs with quick ball, and some good tactical kicking form Adam and Arran at 9 and 10, pushing Gordano back into their half. Against the run of play Gordano were awarded a penalty (not sure what for as I haven’t got a copy of the rule book that the ref chose to use) Gordano converted to go 3-0 up. After some sustained pressure Gordano drove a scrum over from 5 yards to go 10-0 up. With 10 minutes before half time James Ayerst had to go off with a shoulder injury after frankly a cheap shot from the Gordano centre who made no attempt to wrap his arms in the tackle, but according to the ref no such laws exists.After half time barbarians were caught napping after a few poor missed tackle and not dealing with the Gordano drive off the line out, barbarians found themselves 24-0 down. With the game gone it would have been easy to implode and blame the lack of game time and the long break for the performance how ever barbarians picked themselves up and after Fly Half and acting on field captain (not sure what happen to the original captain the less said the better) gave his forwards a kick up the backside and insisting on them taking 1st phase ball Barbarians played their best rugby of the game pushing Gordano back and scoring a try in the corner scored by loose head prop James Wilson. Neatly converted by Arran choosing to drop kick it from the touch line rather than use the conventional tee. In the end the game was lost 29-7 but plenty of positives to take away 1. Scrums against a very good pack we held our and gave them some problems 2. Work at the break down vastly improved on since last year3. Combination of backs and forwards in the last 20 with forwards providing good ball for the backs 4. Commitment on the pitchAnd now for the usual, Commitment on the pitch is great if we can apply the level of commitment on the pitch to training then we could beat any team in this league and finish the season very strongly.
1. James Wilson 2. Michael Berring 3. Dave Vince 4. Ian Churchill 5. Tom Emerton (55 mins) RR 6. James Ayerst (30 mins) GB 7. George Hall 8. Craig Skuse 9. Adam Draper 10. Arran Pearson 11. Edmund Lowe 12. Chris Small 13. Tito Payne 14. Stuart Adams 15. Stuart Brown 16. George Brereton (30 mins) 17. Richard Robinson (55 mins)
Scorers: Try: James Wilson Conversion: Arran Pearson 16th Jan 10 - Bristol Barbarians 2nds vs 46 Southmead 3rds 0 Following Cleve 4ths late cry off on Friday Ian Hillier managed to secure us a fixture against another merit table opponent as short notice. Southmead only turned up with 13 or 14 so thanks to Ryan, Sam, Neil Y and Dale for playing part or all of the game for them.
It became apparant very quickly that spinning the ball wide would lead to lots of points and Neil Young had grabbed both his tries within the first 20 minutes from the left wing. This was followed up by Stevie White going in for a rare try for the club stalwart in the top left corner. All 3 tries were excellently converted by Josh Briggs and Dave Kelly thundered over from 5 yards just before half time to give the barbarians a healthy 26 nil lead.
Replacements were made at half time to make sure everyone got a game and only some superb tackling from Southmead prevented the floodgates from opening. Dan Chidgey was upended several times - no mean feat to dump the big man! and Ryan Finn was denied a 1st club try by possibly tackle of the season taking our boy out a foot short of the line - he did manage to offload though and scrum half Neil Pickford went over for the first of his two tries, James Pithouse also grabbed one and was man of the match from the sidelines, fantastic work around the pitch and in the lineouts, in fact the back row of James, lee and Owen dominated their opposition all game. the last try of the game came from Dale Rhodes on the wing following great hands from the Barbarians backs letting the youngster speed into the corner for the 1st try in his Barbarians career.
Couple of points:-
- A great start to 2010 for the second team, we should now be top of the merit table.
- 20 players for the 2nds and quite a few away, we are really close to having 3 teams so drag more mates up please!
- Best thing about the victory was definitely the unselfish play and willingness to see the ball released along the line - let the ball continue to do the work.
1 Stevie White (40 mins Ryan Finn)
2 Gary Honeyfield
3 Dave Kelly (40 mins Craig Davies)
4 Phil Green
5 Tony Hand (40 mins Shane Manners)
6 Owen Panton
7 James Pithouse
8 Lee Chidgey
9 Neil Pickford
10 John Bane
11 Neil Young (Dale Rhodes)
12 Dan Chidgey
13 Josh Briggs
14 Ed Dorsey
15 Brendan Murphy
16 Ryan Finn
17 Craig Davies
18 Sam Barker (played for Southmead)
19 Dale Rhodes
20 Shane Manners
Scorers:-
Trys: Neil Young (2), Stevie White, Dave Kelly, Neil Pickford (2) James Pithouse, Dale Rhodes
Conversions: Josh Briggs (3)
5th Dec 09 - Bristol Barbarians 7 vs 22 Combe Down A disappointing loss Report by Tom Emerton Another 2 points down the drain, time to step up from next week. Saturday saw the Barbarians take on a Combe Down side sitting below us in the table. After last weeks loss to Old Reds having been in control at half time a win was a must. A delay at the start of the match due to no ref turning up the game kicked off after an ex society ref agreed to run the game. This delay seemed to affect the Bbarbarians more that Combe Down and from the off the Barbarians seemed disjointed and mistakes were plentiful. Combe playing down hill ran up a 15-0 lead by half time. Although Barbarians were unlucky not to have points on the board after period of dominance in the Combe 22 led to Skuse crashing over but the ref was behind the game and called it held up. The resulting 5 yard scrum was then lost and Combe cleared their lines. There was only a short half time break due to the rapidly fading light. Barbarians set about trying to make the most of the downhill advance. Things looked on the up when Arran Pearson scored after 10 minutes following a superb solo run from Ed Lowe and offload in the tackle. But that was all the scoring the Barbarians did with Combe scoring one more try to finish the game at 22-7. Some good individual performance from the backs with Chris Small performing some excellent ball carries but the backline and team as a whole did not gel and was clear to see the difference in teamwork between the sides. So to improve this we must concentrate on developing consistency between the sides from week to week as well as everyone being at training. Team 1. Dave Kelly 2. James Wilson 3. Simon Stratford (Rory Blundell 50 mins) 4. Ian Churchill 5. George Hall 6. George Brereton 7. James Ayerst 8. Craig Skuse 9. Neil Pickford 10. Arran Pearson 11. Eddie Lowe 12. Chris Small 13. Stuart Adams 14. Joe O’Shea 15. Stuart Brown (Tito Payne 60mins) 16. Rory Blundell (50min) 17. Will Cocks 18. Tito Payne (60mins) Scorers: Try - Arran Pearson Conversion - Arran Pearson 5th Dec 09 - BAC 2nds 19 vs 15 Bristol Barbarians II Top of merit table clash sees Barbarians defeated Report by Sam Currey BAC 1sts fixture cancelled and maybe a few sneaked into their 2nds PLUS New ELV's tested as Brendan penalised for retrieving match ball The Barbarians travelled to Filton this weekend for the top of the table clash against BAC 2nd XV knowing that it was going to be a tough and dogged affair. The news that the BAC 1st XV match was cancelled was not received with much delight or even confidence that BAC weren’t going to sneak a few 1st team players into their starting line-up. Sure enough, minutes before kickoff the rain and bad weather arrived and it didn’t take long for the Baa Baa’s to realise that BAC were extremely forward orientated, showing off some well rehearsed set plays and line out moves all for the Baa Baa’s to contend with. The first 20 minutes however were quite even with the strength of the Barbarians pack competing well and when a penalty was awarded to the Baa Baa’s on the 22-yard line, Full Back, Josh Briggs duly guided the ball between the posts setting the Baa Baa’s 3 nil up. Unfortunately the remainder of the half was all BAC’s with the forwards showing why they were top of the table and after 2 held up attempts to touch down over the Baa Baa’s try line, BAC were rewarded with a try coming from a 5 meter scrum and drive. BAC didn’t have to wait too long for their 2nd either, with it coming just before the end of the half and with the conversion attempt completed the scores were 12 – 3 at half time. It’s fair to say that after the re-start and with substitutions made, the Barbarians began the 2nd half looking completely out of sorts, giving away too many penalties and generally making life difficult for themselves. Sure enough the Barbarians poor discipline paid it’s price and after a BAC won lineout, deep in BAA BAA territory, the BAC forwards again drove over for their 3rd try. Alas the Barbarians were not going to give up that easy and began to play the sort of rugby that got them to 2nd in league and after a fine team effort to gain some valuable yards, Hooker, Gary Honeyfield off loaded to Winger Neil Young who glided and sidestepped his way through several BAC tackles to touch down and get the Baa Baa’s back on track. A drop goal from BAC secured them 3 further points but their was only one team on pitch now and after another team effort to secure some quick ball, No 8, Lee Chidgey shrugged off some tackles and made some yards before off loading to his brother and Inside Centre, Dan Chidgey who in customary fashion, jinked his way up to and over the try line, touching down between the posts and with Josh Briggs drop kicking the conversion, the Baa Baa’s could sense a come back. Alas it wasn’t to be and a few minutes later the referee blew up and the match was BAC’s, 19 – 15 victors. 5 more minutes and it may have been a different story! Cries of “we’ll get them back at our place” were confidently vocal in the changing rooms! Team Sheet 1) Richard Chivers 2) Gary Honeyfield 3) Ryan Finn Craig Davies (Sub) 4) Tony Hand Russ Monks (Sub) 5) Andy Davison 6) Sam Currey 7) James Pithouse Owen Panton (Sub) 8) Lee Chidgey 9) Joe Minett 10) Jon Bane (Captain) 11) Neil Young (Try) 12) Dan Chidgey (Try) 13) Brendan Murphy 14) Dale Rose Shane Manners (Sub) 15) Josh Briggs (Pen, Con x 1) 28th Nov 09 - Old Redcliffians II 18 vs 12 Bristol Barbarians Win thrown away with help from the reds linesman We was robbed but should have put the game to bed ages beforehand. This 18-12 loss at Old Reds has halted our charge up the table but hopefully is just a blip. We were the far better side with mass domination in the first half. More points needed from the red zone and far too many penalties given away. From the start the BaaBaas scrum was massively dominant, with Bez taking several against the head the Reds boys were certainly rattled and sustained pressure in there 22 eventually paid off. Craig Skuse took a quick penalty 15 yards out and was group tackled 5 yards short, quick ball recycled to Arran Pearson who went over to the left of the posts. No kicking tee hence no conversion, sort out the pre match preparations please! Some silly penalties denied us further scores and indiscipline led to Reds getting an easy 3 points after 20 minutes. The rest of the 1st half should hav seen several more tries but we had to settle for Jamie Hall's score under the posts converted by Arran Pearson, again the gap was there and our ever reliable scrum half scampered over for a 12-3 half time lead. The 2nd half was going well until a questionable decision by the reds linesman. Arran cleared from our 22 baout 50 yards upfield only for their fullback to catch the ball with one foot in touch and play on, no flag up despite massive shouts from everyone on the line and reds worked down to our 22 eventually being stopped short at the cost of a yellow card for Ian Churchill. The resulting scrums saw Reds awarded a penalty try at the first offence, very questionable and even the reds supporters on the line commented that the ref seemed to be a bit harsh on us. Brendan Murphy then got ejected from the sidelines for making his feelings known to the ref, very bad example and apologies but there were some shocking calls. Not the PC thing to say but did appear we were playing against 16 so I lost track of the other scores, reds scraped it 18-12 in the end however at 15-12 at 3 mins to go maybe we should go for the win rather than the tough penalty to draw. Team:- 1 Dave Vince 2 Michael Berring (SW 55) 3 Stevie White (RR 40) 4 Ian Churchill (yellow card 45 mins) 5 Andy Davison 6 Brendan Murphy (RB 40) 7 Lee Chidgey 8 Craig Skuse 9 Jamie Hall 10 Arran Pearson 11 Eddie Lowe 12 Will Cocks 13 Tito Payne 14 Joe O'Shea 15 Stuart Brown 16 Rory Blundell (BM 40) 17 Richard Robinson (SW 40) 18 Harold Bedwei (SW 60) Scorers: Tries: Arran Pearson, Jamie Hall Conversion: Arran Pearson 28th November - Bristol Barbarians 2nd XV Vs Kingswood 3rds XV Match Report by Sam Currey Venue – Bristol Barbarians Rugby Club Due to several players being unavailable this weekend, the Bristol Barbarians 2nd XV arrived at the clubhouse on Saturday to find that the 1st XV had taken several of their players for their match against Old Reds. This meant that Captain Jon Bane had to spend most of the morning on the phone and up until 30 minutes before kick off had only just scraped 15 players. All things considered the team responded to the challenge and even though most of the boys had not played together this season the forwards were extremely dominant early on, winning all lineout and breakdown plays. This pressure was rewarded with an early try from Flanker Sam Currey, picking up and crossing the line after a loose ball at a ruck. The Barbarians were the only team on the park for the next 20 minutes with forwards and backs working in harmony and after more pressure and fine play they were rewarded with 2 further tries, both scored by Centre Dan Chidgey who, on both occasions, shrugged off several tackles before crossing the line. With all 3 tries converted by Scrum Half, Neil Pickford the Barbarians had justifiably earned themselves a healthy lead going into half time. With changes due to injury required at half time the Barbarians began the 2nd half slightly out of shape and it immediately began to show. Kingswood came out after the break fired up and through their forwards they began to dominate the play pushing the BaBa’s deep into their own half and after some fine defending on the line, Kingswood’s sustained pressure rewarded them with a converted try. This was then to be the story of the half and with the weather deteriorating and the light fading, Kingswood ran in a 2nd converted try. The pressure was now on the BaBa’s to defend their slim lead and hold out to the end of the game however this was not to be the case and after a penalty lineout play 5 minutes before the end, Kingswood ran in a 3rd try beneath the posts that was easily converted Moments later the Referee called time with the scores even at 21 each. A fair result in the end but the Barbarians will see this as points lost not gained. 21st November - Bristol Barbarians 10 Wiveliscombe 0 The Barbarians turned up very early with the 2nds kicking off at 12.45 and a total of 20 UWE students playing today inthe 1sts and 2nds plus Eddie from The University.
Playing downhill in the first half it was important to exert our authority on the game from the start and our pack certainly did this pushing the Wivey boys back on most occassions. A new look back line gelled well and Sturt Brown pulled off an excellent early tackle as the Wivey winger sped up the wing with just our fullback to beat.
Second row Ian Churchill opened up the scoring with his first this season following some excellent rucking and quick ball being recycled to go over in the left hand corner, conversion missed. Following on from this Craig Skuse was unlucky not to extend the lead in the first half with a pushover try that was somehow saved by the Wivey 9. Half time 5-0.
The second half and with the Barbarians going up the hill it was time to up our game and despite the weather conditions handling was pretty good at times. Good defence from Wivey stopped us increasing our lead until the 65th minute when Craig Skuse barged his way over the line in the top right hand corner. Again, conversion missed but a 10 nil lead with 15 minutes to go gave us a bit of breathing space.
Excellent work by all to hold out for this win and brilliant to see our opposition failing to score against us again. The front 5 were awesome and all over the park with Rob Weston in the 2nd row getting our injured captains (Tom Emerton) call for man of the match. The side was captained today by new Vice Captain Arran Pearson who again led from the front with an excellent display alongside his half back partner Jamie Hall.
Two debutants, Stuart and Adam performed very well and competition for 1st team places is really hotting up. We are away next week v Old Redcliffians 2nds.
1 Dave Vince
2 Michael Berring (Bez) 3 Richard Robinson 4 Ian Churchill 5 Rob Weston 6 Brendan Murphy (JA 50 mins) 7 George Hall 8 Craig Skuse 9 Jamie Hall 10 Arran Pearson 11 Edmund Lowe 12 Chris Small 13 Joe O'Shea 14 Adam Draper 15 Stuart Brown 16 James Ayerst (BM 50 mins)
17 Stevie White Scorers: Trys - Ian Churchill, Craig Skuse
Man of the Match: Rob Weston 21st November - Bristol Barbarians IIs 0 Cotham Park IIs 24
Our 2nd team turned up for an early kick off against a VERY strong Cotham Park 2nd team and went down 24 nil. Excellent to see some more new faces in the team and hopefully we will have 3 teams out next week with both the 2nds and 3rds having home fixtures.
This match was only a friendly and the merit table games start again this Saturday and for the next 4 weeks up until Christmas. We are currently 2nd in the table and 4 victories out of 4 are expected.
The team that played Cotham Park included (I think)
1 Stevie White
2 Craig Davies 3 Dave Kelly 4 Russell Monks 5 Andy Davidson 6 Owen Panton 7 James Pithouse 8 Lee Chidgey 9 Neil P 10 John Bane 11 Charlie Harvey 12 Dan Chidgey 13 Joe 14 Nick Campbell 15 Josh Briggs 16 Shane Manners
17 Phil Green 18 New Player 19 New Player 20 Adam 21 Cant remember sorry! I know i have missed someone out. 14th Nov 09 - Bristol Barbarians 27 vs 0 Old Culverhaysians Gale force winds stop Barbarians scoring lots more 27 nil win but should have been loads more 80 mile per hour winds were predicted for 3pm Saturday afternoon, I dont think it ever got that bad but the conditions certainly stopped us running in a lot more tries as well as the ref blowing up 10 minutes or so early in the 2nd half. Well done for keeping the clean sheet and some excellent tries were scored to my recollection as follows:- 1st half - 17 nil Craig Skuse getting hold of the ball 5 metres from the line, not much gonna stop him from there! Conversion missed Dave Vince, received the ball just outside the 22 and rumbled through some lapse tackling from at least 3 Old Culverhaysians, after brushing these aside he was eventually stopped a metre short and looked to pass before deciding to up the power and carried another 2 OC's over the line to score his first try for the Barbarians since joining this season. Conversion hit the post and went wide Arran Pearson, our fly half, taken out off the ball in what was a definite red card somehow missed by the ref. Craig Skuse took the penalty and ran straight at the offending number 12 who suddenly seemed to shy away from contact with the skuse! Try in the corner converted by Jamie Hall. 2nd half - Final Score 27-0 2 tries this half both unconverted. Joe O'Shea received the ball out on his right wing and squeezed up the touchline to score in the corner after some great work from his fellow backs. Jamie Hall spotted the gap from a 5 metre maul and dived over untouched for the final score of the game. With the weather worsening the ref blew up about 10 minutes early. Attrocious conditions and excellent to hold the opposition to a big fat 0. Team: 1 Dave Vince 2 Michael Berring 3 Sam Barker (DK 30 mins) 4 Ian Churchill 5 George Hall 6 George Brereton 7 Tom Emerton (BM 10 mins) 8 Craig Skuse 9 Jamie Hall 10 Arran Pearson 11 Eddie Lowe 12 Chris Small 13 Stuart Adams 14 Joe O'Shea 15 Chris Ansah 16 Brendan Murphy (10 mins for TE) 17 Dave Kelly (30 mins for SB)
14th Nov 09 - Bristol Barbarians II 12 vs 5 Whitehall II Whoop Whoop, is that 5 or 6 on the bounce? Our 2nds played, yep you guessed they won again Avonmouth 4ths were unable to raise a side and so we went in the pool at very late notice and got a home game against Whitehall 2nds who turned up expecing to hand out a lesson. Well they are certainly the ones who got one. A 12-5 victory with tries coming from brothers in arms Lee and Daniel Chidgey and a conversion from Josh Briggs. The game was blown up early due to the adverse weather conditions but well done to the boys who at last had a bit of real competition. The "merit table" is being fixed currently and should be online soon, we are top and make sure we stay there! Saturday 24th October 2009 Two out of two for rampant Barbarians Saturday 26th September 2009 |