The Barbarians (Baabaas) are facing the Wallabies at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday and it looks to be an impressive encounter.

The composite outfit come into the game on the back of a 33-26 win over England last weekend at Twickenham, while it will be the Wallabies’ first outing of their 2009 international season.

This will be the 11th match between Australia and the Barbarians since the foundation game in 1948 at Cardiff Arms Park, but it will be the first time the famous festival club plays in Australia.

The BaaBaas do not have pressure to win, but the Wallabies will be keen to kick off their season on a winning note and they may well rely on a conservative approach to grind out a win which could dent the game’s ‘exhibition’ status.

The BaaBaas would not want to get sucked into a percentages game and they will be trying to play as expansively as they can which should result in a high-scoring affair.

While BaaBaas coach Dai Young insists his side will look to entertain the capacity crowd at the Sydney Football Stadium, he made no secret of his desire to defeat the Wallabies.

“We’ll try to come into the game, we want to throw the ball about [and] we want to be entertaining but make no bones about it as well, we want to win,” he said.

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Australia ended their end of year UK tour with a victory over the Barbarians. The Aussies won 18 – 11 at Wembley Stadium in an very exciting and action packed game.

“The Wallabies, with England referee Chris White seemingly in the festive season spirit already and very generous in his handling of the constant breaches of the law, simply tackled the BaaBaas into submission.

But it was the Australians’ greater enthusiasm and willingness to push the law to its utter limits in both defence and at the breakdown, that won them the day.

The victory was sealed only two minutes from time, by replacement Lachie Turner’s breakaway try after South Africa’s Francois Steyn, who also missed a number of goal-kicks, turned the ball over yet again.

The result meant Australia had won four of their six tour matches – also beating Italy, England and France, but losing to New Zealand, in Hong Kong, and Wales last weekend in Cardiff.

Australia took the Rugby Union gold medal in 1908 with a 32-3 victory over Great Britain, represented by the south-west English county of Cornwall.

The Barbarians, in honour of that match, all wore yellow Cornwall socks as they departed from their usual tradition of players wearing their club socks.

BaaBaas try-scorer Jerry Collins, who last year played for Cornish side Barnstaple, even dyed his hair yellow.

The Barbarians were 6-13 behind with just under 30 minutes left when they got back into the game with a superb try.

Australia fullback James O’Connor’s poor kick out of defence gave possession back to the Barbarians and Steyn, playing at flyhalf, threw a long cut-out pass to Welsh wing Shane Williams, the newly-crowned International Rugby Board Player of the Year.

Williams, on as a half-time replacement for Percy Montgomery, sprinted clear down the touchline.

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Having a look at the teams for the Barbarians vs Australia encounter tonight, anyone who is a rugby fan will have their mouths watering at this juicy encounter. Here are the teams, kick-off time, weather conditions, etc:

Barbarians:

15. Percy Montgomery,14. Joe Rokocoko, 13. Rico Gear, 12. Jean de Villiers, 11. Bryan Habana, 10. Francois Steyn, 9. Fourie du Preez, 8. Schalk Burger, 7. Richie McCaw, 6. Jerry Collins, 5. Johann Muller, 4. Bakkies Botha, 3. Census Johnson, 2. John Smit (captain), 1. Federico Pucciariello.
Replacements: 16. Mark Regan, 17. Rodney Blake, 18. Chris Jack, 19. Nick Koster, 20. George Gregan, 21. Ollie Smith, 22. Shane Williams.

Australia:

15. James O’Connor, 14. Lote Tuqiri, 13. Ryan Cross, 12. Adam Ashley-Cooper, 11. Digby Ioane, 10. Quade Cooper, 9. Brett Sheehan, 8. Richard Brown, 7. George Smith, 6. Dean Mumm, 5. Hugh McMeniman, 4. Mark Chisholm, 3. Matt Dunning, 2. Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1. Sekope Kepu
Replacements:

16. Adam Freier, 17. Ben Alexander, 18. Peter Kimlin, 19. David Pocock, 20. Luke Burgess, 21. Lachie Turner, 22. Drew Mitchell

Venue: Wembley Stadium London
Kick-off: 19.45 (19.45 GMT)
Weather: It is a night game, but the prospect of rain is small. It will be cold, with a high of 2°C and a low of -3°C
Referee: Chris White (England)
Touch judges: Wayne Barnes (England), Steve Terheege (England)
TMO: Geoff Warren (England)

The Springboks crushed England on Saturday by beating them 42 – 6 at Twickenham by coming up with an excellent display of defence.

“Tries by Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adie Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana and assured goalkicking by Pienaar after the break completed a hugely satisfying European tour with South Africa’s sixth win in a row against England.

On a day that marked the fifth anniversary of England’s 2003 World Cup triumph, the home side were given a stark reminder of how far they have fallen since that glorious night in Sydney and the heady days of seven successive wins over the Springboks.

“It was a brutal lesson,” coach Martin Johnson told Sky Sports News. “We created a lot of opportunities but the execution was poor.”

Springbok captain John Smit said: “We signed off in style. I asked a lot from the guys this week but they gave me more.

“I could feel it before the game, you know every guy is really on task and you get these wonderful days when everything comes together.”

England got off to a flyer with a Danny Cipriani penalty in the first minute but it was very much a false dawn as within 20 minutes the Springboks had raced into a 17-3 lead, with all the points coming from English mistakes.

A penalty levelled it before Rossouw showed great strength to get the first try after England lost possession 10 metres from the South African line.

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Recent Results:
2007 South Africa won 15-6 Stade de France, Paris WC Final
2007 South Africa won 36-0 Stade de France, Paris WC Pool
2007 South Africa won 55-22 Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
2007 South Africa won 58-10 Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein
2006 South Africa won 25-14 Twickenham, London
2006 England won 23-21 Twickenham, London
2004 England won 32-16 Twickenham, London
2003 England won 25-6 Subiaco Oval, Perth WC Pool
2002 England won 53-3 Twickenham, London
2001 England won 29-9 Twickenham, London
2000 England won 25-17 Twickenham, London
2000 England won 27-22 Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein

Bok coach Peter de Villiers named the Springbok team that’ll take on the English at Twuckenham on Saturday.

“Tighthead prop Jannie du Plessis came into the front row in place of his injured brother Bismarck, with John Smit moving inside to hooker. There was also a change in the back row where Danie Rossouw is promoted from the bench to replace Juan Smith who took a blow to the head against Scotland and has not fully recovered.

The back division is unchanged – with Fourie du Preez still not fully recovered from a quadriceps injury – while there were two changes on the bench.

Flanker Heinrich Brussow could make his Test debut if he is called into action while Chiliboy Ralepelle covers for John Smit. They replace Rossouw and the injured Gurthro Steenkamp.

The team is as follow (test caps in brackets):

1. Beast Mtawarira (9)
2. John Smit (capt) (80)
3. Jannie du Plessis (6)
4. Bakkies Botha (54)
5. Victor Matfield (79)
6. Schalk Burger (48)
7. Danie Rossouw (35)
8. Pierre Spies (18)
9. Ricky Januaries (33)
10. Ruan Pienaar (26)
11. Bryan Habana (45)
12. Jean de Villiers (45)
13. Adi Jacobs (20)
14. JP Pietersen (23)
15. Conrad Jantjes (23)

Reserves:

16. Chiliboy Ralepelle (2)
17. Brian Mujati (11)
18. Andries Bekker (12)
19. Ryan Kankowski (6)
20. Heinrich Brussow (-)
21. Frans Steyn (26)
22. Jaque Fourie (35)

Source: sarugby.co.za

South Africa made it two out of two on their British tour on Saturday by narrowly beating Scotland 10 – 14 on Saturday, after the Scots led 10 – 0 at halftime.

“For the second successive week it was the home coach who felt his team had played the better rugby and deserved to win, and Scotland’s Frank Hadden had even more right to do that here than Wales’ Warren Gatland did a week ago.

Scotland led 10-0 at half-time and were pressing for a try in the final minutes as they launched wave after wave of attack at a tired Bok defence. On a day where both kickers missed attempts at goal, it was Scotland who conspired most against themselves by fluffing no less than four shots at the posts.

It was not supposed to be this close against a Scottish team that now drops to ninth on the world rankings after this defeat, and which is at a low ebb at present. Just seven days ago the same Scotland team played the All Black second stringers and lost by 30 points, and much was made before this game of the fact the Scots had not crossed for a try at home in 14 months.

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Nine South Afican Rugby players have been invited to play for the Barbarian team against the Wallabies at Wembley Stadium next month in London. They are:

Fourie du Preez; Gurthro Steenkamp; Nick Koster; Jean de Villiers; Bakkies Botha; Schalk Burger; Bryan Habana; John Smit and Percy Montgomery.

Ricky Januarie have replaced Fourie du Preez in the starting XV for the Sprinbok game against Scotland on Saturday. Du Preez injured a quadriceps muscle in training yesterday. Januarie’s place on the bench has been taken by utility forward Danie Rossouw.

An intercept try by Jean de Villiers saved the World Champion Boks from a humiliating defeat against Wales on Saturday, with the experimenting by Peter de Villiers with Ruan Pienaar and John Smit having gone pretty smoothly. The Springboks won 20 – 15, with the halftime score 13 – 3.

“De Villiers’ try, converted by Ruan Pienaar, made it 20-3 with 28 minutes to go – 28 anxious minutes for the Springboks as replacement flyhalf James Hook slotted four penalties, Jaque Fourie was yellow-carded after the Boks had received a general warning for killing the ball at the breakdown and Smit spent a few minutes off the field having a cut on his nose stitched up.

Fortunately, though, the Welsh did not possess the necessary skill or accuracy to really make the Springboks pay and they were able to survive a scrappy performance to get their tour off to a winning start.

After opening the scoring with a superb try, completed by Adi Jacobs, as early as the fifth minute it did not seem as though the Boks would have too much trouble putting the Welsh away, especially when Ruan Pienaar, who had converted the try, added a penalty to make it 10-0 after just eight minutes.

However the Boks did not kick on against a team having their first outing since losing two tests to South Africa in June.

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