Baa-Baas team to face Australia...

... at Twickenham on Saturday:

Barbarians: 15 Isaia Toeava, 14 Sam Tomkins, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stirling Mortlock, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Mauro Bergamasco, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Victor Matfield (captain), 4 Simon Shaw, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Eusebio Guinazu.
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss, 17 Salvatore Perugini, 18 Jason White, 19 Marco Bortolami, 20 Nemia Kenatale, 21 Richard Kahui, 22 Seru Rabeni.

Thats actually a really fantastic team. Is the game on TV?

Not sure, Staggy, will await Penfro's update. Players from 10 countries with over 1,000 caps between them

red_stag wrote:Thats actually a really fantastic team. Is the game on TV?

Saturday 2:30 on sky sports 1

That looks great. cant wait...!

There's some real grizzly physicality in there.

The game is on Sky.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Not sure, Staggy, will await Penfro's update. Players from 10 countries with over 1,000 caps between them

Its what the Baabaas should be. Extremely disappointed in the Scarlets not releasing Stephen Jones.

Will Sam Tomkins wear his Wigan socks? Probably not the most pressing issue today...

I would assue so Carpe, what other clubs would he wear? I could send him along a nice pair of hooped red and black ones if he wanted to support my local social team.

Got a spare set of "Old Spunkonians 1st VX" if that would help?

That's it we should start a 'Socks for Sam' campaign...

So Tomkins starts eh? Interesting to see how he goes and more importantly if he suddenly gets the taste for the 15 man code.....

Hasn't he just signed a massive, long contract to stay in RL, but he wanted this one shot at RU to see how he would've gotten on? His bro signed for Sarries tho?

Yes...im just curious to see if he suddenly thinks wow...this is the game for me.....

Impressive looking team ... and I've got a ticket to the match

GeordieFalcon wrote:Yes...im just curious to see if he suddenly thinks wow...this is the game for me.....

Well you'd be mad not to think that wouldn't you?

Can't wait to watch this game, so many players to watch out for. Can not wait to see how the Matfield/Shaw partnership goes.

Fruean/Mortlock mid field is interesting. Although the outsides might not see too much of the ball with that pair.

Looks an interesting side. Plenty of grunt upfront and in mid-field, hope we get to see a bit of the traditional Baabaa's flair as well. I can see Tomkins tracking in much the same way as Ashton with the shared background of being rugby league full backs maybe coming in to the line off the shoulders of the big centres and looking for offloads? Will also be interesting to see which Cipriani turns up, I've never been the biggest fan, but on form he is enjoyable to watch he's also got no pbvious cover in the squad so will probably play all game.

Is Rabeni a permanent fixture an the Baabaa's bench he seems to be there in almost every game they'ce played recently?

From the Australian point of view it'll be interesting to see O'Conner at 10, he's a good attacking player but i'm not convinced he has the game management for 10, having said that i saw him play reasonably well there for Western Force in the Super XV. I'll also be keeping an eye on Higginbotham who seems to enjoy the open spaces a bit, has a good turn of speed and a seeming love for the chip kick, he's up against Kaino though so will need to show he can do the hard work.

Basically I'm quite intrigued by this game.

Edit: JUst for the sake of completeness the Aussie team is:

Adam Ashley-Cooper, Lachie Turner, Rob Horne, Berrick Barnes, Digby Ioane; James O'Connor, Will Genia; James Slipper, Tatafu Polota Nau, Salesi Ma'afu, Rob Simmons, Nathan Sharpe, Scott Higginbotham, David Pocock (capt), Dave Dennis. Replacements: Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander, James Horwill, Radike Samo, Matt Hodgson, Nick Phipps, Ben Tapuai.

Should be a great game, I'm gonna say Baa-baas by 12 points

0-3 ozzies at the moment

Already mentioned Cipriani 12 times......

who... ?

hes done nothing, less than tompkins

A clean pair of heels from Lachie Turner there...

O'Conner and Genia as a partnership could have a huge future. look great

yellow card cooper

this guy tomkins looks miles out of depth

had a fairly decent break there, but yeah doesn't look like a union player.

flankertye wrote:had a fairly decent break there, but yeah doesn't look like a union player.

Certainly not a potential convert like Robinson, he's not even a Harris...

Scrappy game full of spite at the moment.

anyone has a link of this game on internet? doesnt show in france

I think for a week's training he's doing a decent job.

As Miles Harrison said, "Steve Hansen was running through how to place a ball back from the ruck 20 minutes before kick-off"...

Turner gets in the corner

3-18 HT

I love Stringer, he's one of the dodgiest (read annoying) SHs around.

Not to mention a 'play-by-the-rules', stingy & tough little nugget... in the nicest possible way.

I remember when Ireland were 2 points behind in the last few minutes of a match in the 6N - can't remember opposition, possibly France, and they got advantage so he just deliberately knocked the ball on from the ruck to give O'gara the 3 pt chance. It's little things like that - I'm not sure why more players don't do that in that position (apart from you might as well take a pop at the drop goal)

Not a classic Baa Baas game so far... Lots of high tackles

Jimmy Horwill saunters over now...

Yeah, not the same intensity of games gone by. Still waiting for the Baas to step up a few gears.

Bit shocking really. You can tell there's no atmosphere in Twickers

Roman Poite doesn't really have the spirit of Baa Baa rugby in his adjudication. Three yellow cards so far.

Cipriani looking miles out of depth here hands the ball to Robbie Horne for a try under the posts.

Cipriani speculative offload from overthrown lineout in own 22. 32 - 6 to AUS

maestegmafia wrote:Roman Poite doesn't really have the spirit of Baa Baa rugby in his adjudication. Three yellow cards so far.

Yeah I'd agree - they've all been for cynicism (if it were for dangerous tackles you couldn't blame him)

Yes lacking atmosphere...!

They should play these matches at other stadiums away from twickenham... The Baa Baas used to play in Cardiff, Lansdown and Murrayfield too.

Aus winning 6 -32

2 tries to Horwill, this is an awful BaaBaas team.

Yeah, and pick more Welsh & Irish players... players with a bit of fire.

I know it's difficult to do that with all your comps on - but this match has been a waste of time.

6 - 39

60 mins gone

Linebreaker wrote:Yeah, and pick more Welsh & Irish players... players with a bit of fire.

I know it's difficult to do that with all your comps on - but this match has been a waste of time.

I agree

There should be a lot more home players who respect this traditional match and the spirit of the Baa Baas. This is a sad day for BB rugby.

It's one bad game out of the many good the Baa Baas have offered in the past few years. Had to happen you might say?

Good move from own half resulting in Lachie Turner going in around the corner.

It's a rout. 6 - 44 with conversion to come

I feel so sorry for those who paid to watch this. Utterly shameful from the Barbarians. Denigrating the good name of this side.

If you can't be bothered to be there then don't agree to turn up.

I agree with above. Pick lots of young celtic and english players who will turn up and look to play. Don't pick a bunch of sh guys who look like they're still hung over from the world cup.

i think blame falls at poites feet more than anyone else.

despite that good aussie team. like conner at ten... looks a great option.

Tomikins is more Barry John Mather than Jason Robinson...!

This is pathetic.

O'Connor is fabulous. Cipriaunty is useless. The bloke from rugby league is also useless. If I'd paid for this I'd want a refund.

Looking forward to the next match to see some proper rugby. Let's hope Sarries can beat those dirty cheating Saints.

Poor Wales next week