Springbok winger Bryan Habana scored a hat-trick of tries to steer the Barbarians to a 25 – 18 victory over the All Blacks at Twickenham on Saturday for only the second time in 10 attempts.

New Zealand had rested most of their first-choice players against a strong Barbarian side but will nevertheless be disappointed to have ended their previously victorious European tour with a defeat.

The Barbarians’ only other win over the All Blacks was the 1973 success in Cardiff, highlighted by the most famous try in rugby, scored by Gareth Edwards.

Saturday’s match, in front of 65,000 fans, could not match that brilliance but after much of the dull fare served up in many of the November internationals it was played with a refreshing commitment to attack.

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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)