Barbarians rugby teams progress
AN action-packed weekend saw both the under 16s and the seniors recording fine wins against tough opposition.
First up was the Ba Ba’s under 16s, who entertained Elche in the league’s semi-final play-offs.
The game was hard-fought and it was evident from the first whistle that the players meant business, with them running aggresively and competing hard in every contact situation.
The huge Elche pack were dominant in the first 15 minutes and surprised the home team by going over for a try after 10 minutes.
The Barabarians looked slow and complacent in the first half, maybe due to the fact they had beaten Elche easily, earlier in the season, and thought it was just a mere formality just to turn up. Elche had other ideas and pressured the Ba Bas throughout the match, with the scores swinging one way and then the other throughout the match. In the end the home team scraped through 29-24 and now play La Vila in the final on April 22.
It was credit to all the players in providing such an entertaining game and, on balance, it must be said, the vastly improved Elche/Orihuela team were very unlucky not to have won this hard-fought game.
Following on from this superb victory, the seniors took on UCV on Saturday afternoon for the Valencian first division third and fourth place play-off.
Again, the visitors opened the scoring following some fine support play, but the Barbarians fought back and went into half time leading 10-7.
The second half was evenly balanced and the collisions were immense, with no team taking a backwards step.
As the away team tired going into the last 10 minutes, the Ba Bas scored a breakaway try, and finally ran out winners 25-19.
Apart from the under 16 game on April 22, that basically wraps up the league season as we now move into playing tournaments and friendlies throughout the summer period.
With the appointment of a new full time academy coach/ administartor Ramiro Cervino, the Barbarians are building teams across all age levels for the new 2023/24 season. He will be ably supported by Elliott, Chris, Mac, Sergio, Joaquin and Vero in developing teams for minis U10s, S12, S14 and S16s.
If you have played before in the UK, still fancy a game, and live in the Marina Alta area, you are very welcome to have a runout at training with the squad every Tuesday and Thursday. We have players from Spain, Argentina, New Zealand, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, Chile and Ecuador. Basically, you could say we are a multi-national set up which evokes the culture of Barbarians rugby.
The Barbarians run academy teams covering under 16s to under 18s (both men’s and
women’s) through to seniors, and welcomes everyone to come and train and join the club. Free qualified coaching is available at all levels.
Please call Santi (Spanish) on 676 612 357 or Mac (English) on 609 646 349 for more information.