The weekend are coming round thick and fast, this week we had both first and second teams at home Barbarians welcomed Ripon to wagon Lane this week.
In past fixtures its always been a hard game to take point off Ripon they are a well organised team tough to beat, but this season we are finding this young barbarian team will give there all to grind out results.
A huge positive is the number they are getting being available this week no exception with another twenty one man squad to pick from, another positive is being able to call on more experienced players to play alongside the young lads to bring balance to the team and performances.
This week we saw James Morton returning to the ranks after a long injury spell which could of seen James having to hang his boots up, so glad it didn't beat him and he fought his way back to play again and his performance today showed nothing has change with his attacking game and big defensive hit , bagging himself a try and couple of assists and a try being given only for the referee after speaking with some of the Ripon players and their coach to then disallow the try but his was just one decision we found bizarre by the ref, but the boys just let their rugby do the talking, we also welcomed back big Richard Hughes to add his experience too, again rewarded with a try as well. Another experienced head to marshal the team at fly half was Phil Greaves. speaking with Mark Smith head coach he is loving the balance of the squad right now, saying having the quality and experience mixed with the drive of the young lads wanting to win and better the last performance is something magical and bringing exiting times to the club, having two teams pushing themselves all the time and it showing in league positions is a credit to themselves.
the full time score many of been one-sided but credit to Ripon they gave a strong performance and wasn't just lying down they challenged at the scrum to the lineout and fought at every breakdown, and gave the Bees a tough workout today, but at the moment the Bees have stepped up to the challenge in this seasons league wanting to do a lot better than their sixth position last season.
Like last week we had ten different names on the scoresheet which is amazing and just shows the strength in depth the squad has and only getting better.
Like last week I couldn't focus on just one performance as the lads all played and gave a brilliant performance working and supporting each other for the full 80 minutes.
Another huge test lays await for the young squad next week in local derby at Wagon Lane against Keighley, we also have the first team at home for the second week which is great for the support we get down at the club, hopefully we get a big crowd cheering the Barbarians on as well.
Full Time: Barbarians 66 Ripon 3.