Magnificent Men Of The Civil Service Go Barnstorming

Rugby result- Barnes 24 CS Rugby 1863 45

 
 
Nick Alway reports-
 
CS Rugby officially turns  150 in  just under three weeks' time and this was as good an early birthday present as they could have hoped for.
 
Whilst the Duke's Meadows, Chiswick based side were - as Civil Service - one of  the founder members of the Rugby Football Union, for the last decade and more it has been their Barnes neighbours who have enjoyed superior status on-field  , operating at times as high as National 2 South.
 
Saturday's conclusive  result in the Stags' favour in National 3 London & South East in a match brought forward to avoid Christmas complications  meant  an early home and away double for the team from the Middlesex side of the river and arguably the right to claim to be the best junior side in London.
 
That result would have been very difficult to predict when Barnes controlled possession for all of  the first seven minutes of the game,  including a 35 phase spell leading to a seemingly inevitable score.
 

The script soon changed dramatically, however. By half-time CS  were leading 24-12 and tries from wing Jon Webber, full back James Houstoun, centre  Stuart Peel and wing Freddie Taylor had already delivered  a  bonus point. Barnes' forwards  were  a sturdy unit but  when it came to creative back play there was really only one team in it.    
 
 Three penalties from fly-half Scott Hadden, whose father Frank the ex- Scotland coach had  assisted head coach, Gareth Jordan in the previous Thursday's training, punished multiple Barnes' indiscretions  in the first ten minutes of the second period and effectively put matters way beyond Barnes' reach  although there was still  half an hour of the game to go. 
 
The  sides  then  shared  four further tries as the entertainment  continued  with forwards,  Chris Endersby and Sam Glasson wrapping things up for the Stags and Barnes securing a four try bonus point themselves as some small compensation for all their forwards' efforts , the last a second Barnes' pushover with yellow cards having by then reduced the home pack to seven as against their visitors' six!
 
It had been a day for  those in the open spaces, not in the dark recesses of the scrummage, to have the real fun though.         
 

October 25, 2013