Big win for the Seconds

Conditions at Welwyn were surprisingly good considering the weather which allowed the visiting side plenty of opportunities to play strong attacking rugby against an opposition that admitted to having a number of new players – this was certainly a baptism of fire for them.

Barnet took to the field welcoming back a large number of players from long-term injuries, none more so than Matt Nicholas who was playing his first game in almost a year after a lengthy hamstring injury. There was also an opportunity to impress the first team coach who had come down to watch the team with an eye to selection for the rest of the season. It didn’t take long for the twos to get into their stride as the forwards were winning quick and good-quality ball allowing the backs to go through the moves out wide. Unfortunately your correspondent dos not have the capacity to remember all the details of the 12 tries that were scored but he will do his best to pick some out. The Barnet account was opened after Ben Ribeiro put in a kick to the corner and the pack were able to put huge pressure on the home side’s lineout which allowed both Shane Kyriacou and Luke Williams to surge through and pounce on the ball. Allegations that LUKE WILLIAMS pushed Shane out of the way to score his first ever try for the club have been confirmed. The first half also saw Barnet’s best try from a coach’s perspective with strong forwards running, in particular by George Whitebread sucking up players and the ball was quickly recycled and spread to DAVE LEADBITTER to saunter over in the corner. Other scorers included MATT NICHOLAS who was set up magnificently by ROB MCFARLANE who also went over and LUKE WILLIAMS scored another try (apparently they are like London buses) complete with a rather mediocre effort at a sidestep. One disappointment was the concession of a rather soft but admittedly deserved try for Welwyn where the Barnet defence opened up to allow them through from 20 metres out.

The message at half time was to keep working at the structure of the team rather than resort to showboating and this was duly supplied with superb work in the forwards by Shane Kyriacou, Phanos Louca and Matt Conisbee ably supported in defence by the tireless Chris Blomiley. This half saw both ROB MCFARLANE (picking great lines) and DAVE LEADBITTER (superb support play) go on to add three tries each to both finish with four as well as Rob’s brother AL MCFARLANE making it over the line. Although towards the end the home side flagged, most of these tries required a great deal of work to find and exploit the gaps so credit must go to the seconds for staying focused on the task at hand.

Needless to say there were fantastic performances from all eighteen players involved and a range of votes for man of the match. The winner, however, was LUKE WILLIAMS who combined defensive commitment and aggression with a hitherto unknown attacking panache. The after match meal was a veritable mixed bag it is fair to say. The catering staff were readily admitting to the fact that the pasta was so overcooked that they didn’t feel it should be served so kudos to them for maintaining their standards. The bolognaise sauce was, however, tasty if a little on the sweet side – maybe the pasta would have helped with this – and the garlic bread was top-notch.