Barking Rugby Club in action against Esher

Cutting happy with workout provided by a strong Esher side.

Barking’s director of rugby Dean Cutting refused to read too much into his side’s 46-5 home defeat in their opening pre-season fixture at the hands of Esher on Saturday.

The Goresbrook outfit used their whole first-team squad for the game, making numerous changes every 20 minutes.

However, it was the visitors that benefitted from the disruption, as they ran up a 19-0 lead at the break.

It was more of the same in the second half, as Esher ran in a further five tries, although Barking did get on the scoresheet themselves when Francis Ambrose crashed over from a quickly- taken penalty.

However, Cutting doesn’t care about the scoreline, and is instead concerning himself with how his side performed against strong opposition.

“The result is there for all to see, but the game wasn’t about the result for us,” he said.

“It was more about how we fitted this new team that we have together.

“We conceded some scores, but that is all familiarisation stuff that will come by playing more games together.

“We are a new side, we didn’t expect it to click all at once, but I am pretty positive that we will get there eventually.”

Esher were meant to bring a mixture of the second and third teams to Gale Street, but Cutting, along with many other spectators, suspected the Surrey side had bought along a large number of their first team.

“It was supposed to be a second team fixture really,” explained Cutting.

“But knowing a few of their guys, we were quite confident that the majority of their team were first-team players.

“But it is what it is, we need to play games, results are not important at the moment, but we will get there.”

Barking used close to 30 players during Saturday’s game, and Cutting admitted it was good to see his new squad in a game scenario and said he learned a lot about his players and the team spirit within the camp as a result of the defeat.

“We are always looking to improve in most areas, but we had a lot of young guys on the pitch and a lot of guys who have never played in a game situation together before,” he said.

“The game was about us trying to find ourselves as a group of players and as a group of mates.

“That team spirit we showed by sticking at it and never giving up will show later on in the season, when the proverbial hits the fan!”

One sour note for Barking was the loss of captain Craig Ratford, who was forced off the pitch in the last 10 minutes, clutching his shoulder in pain.

And Cutting admits that the early signs do not look too promising and that the team may be without their 21-year-old fly-half for a little while.

“He has taken a bang on the AC joint on his shoulder,” said Cutting.

“We are hoping it isn’t too serious in terms of the damage, but I don’t know.

“He is an important player for us and we don’t want to lose him for too long.”

Cutting’s men continue their pre-season campaign this Friday, when they make the trip across London to National One side Rosslyn Park.

And the director of rugby is predicting that Friday’s game will be a clearer indication as to how the team are progressing, ahead of the first league game of the season at Lydney on September 1.

“I think that the Rosslyn Park game will be a fairer test to where the team is at,” he added.

“We are still finding out about players and each other, so hopefully by the end of pre-season and by September 1, we will be a bit further down the line.

“I am pretty confident that we will get there, without a doubt.”