Barbarians

In my humble opinion this weekend see's the return of one rugby's greatest traditions with the Barbarian's match against South Africa at Twickenham.  I rank the Baba's up there with the Lion's in terms traditions that make rugby such a great game, the matches are always great spectacles and a really fun day out as well as actually being affordable (£35 ish for a cheap ticket versus £70 ish for a cheap six nations ticket for England v Italy!).

And this year's Baba's team is not short on talent and excitement:

15. James O'Connor (Aus)
14. Joe Rokocoko (NZ)
13. Adam Ashley-Cooper (Aus)
12. Ma'a Nonu (NZ)
11. Drew Michell (Aus)
10. Matt Giteau (Aus) (Capt)
9. Will Genia (Aus)
1. Salvatore Perugini (Ita)
2. Stephen Moore (Aus)
3. Neemia Tialata (NZ)
4. Anton Van Zyl (SA)
5. Chris Jack (NZ)
6. Rodney So'oialo (NZ)
7. Martyn Williams (Wal)
8. Colin Bourke (NZ)

Replacements:
Kevin Mealamu (NZ)
John Yapp (Wal)
Quintin Geldenhuys (Ita)
Daniel Braid (NZ)
Andrew Ellis (NZ)
Stephen Donald (NZ)
Seru Rabeni (Fiji)

The backs look superb for the Baba's and should give South Africa some real food for thought.  The front five I think could be in for a bit of a struggle against a powerful South African scrum, especially the tight five.  I would have liked to have seen a couple more European's in the team - however I'd presume this is down to player release rather than them not being picked!

My prediction is for a South African win - but I think it'll be a fairly close scoreline!  If you get a chance to get to HQ to see it then it's well worth the investment.  I went last year to the NZ game as part of my stag do, awesome day out and we got to see a few classic Habana trys!