Barbarians name a star-studded Top 14 XV to face England on Sunday
Fabien Galthie has named a star-studded Barbarians team skippered by Charles Ollivon to take on England this Sunday at Twickenham. Fourteen of the XV that will play against Eddie Jones’ side in this pre-Australian tour warm-up play their club rugby in the Top 14, with ex-England lock George Kruis the sole exception.
Three recent Heineken Champions Cup winners with La Rochelle have been chosen by the France boss Galthie - midfielder Levani Botia, hooker Pierre Bourgarit and second row Will Skelton who this week amused RugbyPass Offload listeners with his greatly entertaining guest appearance on the show.
Also included by the Barbarians are a clutch of Test team stars from Galthie’s Grand Slam-winning France, the likes of winger Damien Penaud, loosehead Jean-Baptiste Gros and back-rower Dylan Cretin. Baa-Baas skipper Ollivon, who was last year’s France skipper until suffering a serious injury, will lead the invitational team from openside.
The Barbarians XV also has a Georgian flavour as Davit Niniashvili, the Lyon winger who clashed with Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth in the recent Challenge Challenge Cup final, and tighthead Beka Gigashvili have been selected.
The Barbarians will be hoping it is a case of third time lucky when it comes to this weekend at Twickenham as their previous two matches at the English rugby HQ were cancelled.
The scheduled match versus England in October 2020 was called off two days in advance after it emerged that 13 players had broken team protocols, while last November’s game with Samoa fell by the wayside on matchday due to a virus outbreak.
BARBARIANS (vs England, Sunday)
15. Max Spring (France, R92); 14. Damien Penaud (France, Clermont), 13. Virimi Vakatawa (France, R92), 12. Levani Botia (Fiji, La Rochelle), 11. Davit Niniashvili (Georgia, Lyon); 10. Antoine Hastoy (France, Pau), 9. Batiste Couilloud (France, Lyon); 1. Jean-Baptiste Gros (France, Toulon), 2. Pierre Bourgarit (France, La Rochelle), 3. Beka Gigashvili (Georgia, Toulon), 4. George Kruis (England, Panasonic Wild Knights), 5. Will Skelton (Australia, La Rochelle), 6., Dylan Cretin (France, Lyon), 7. Charles Ollivon (C) (France, Toulon), 8. Yoan Tanga (France, R92).
Reps: 16. Danny Priso (France, La Rochelle), 17. Christopher Tolofua (France, Toulon), 18. Sipili Falatea (France, Clermont), 19. Thomas Lavault (La Rochelle), 20. Nolann Le Garrec (R92), 21. Louis Carbonel (France, Toulon), 22. Sekou Macalou (France, Stade Francais), 23, Tani Vili (France, Clermont), 24. Thomas Laclayat (Oyonnax - travelling reserve).
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Everywhere you turn some irish journo is advocating Ireland as the greatest, reasoning that the wc is a 4 year cycle event so, they say wc doesn’t matter it’s the rugby in between that should account for the accolade. If there was no wc then some substance could be gained, however in my opinion the moment that defined Ireland’s fate against the abs was 37 phases of repeated head bashing against a brick wall. If a change in strategy or a tinker with the game plan was executed then things could've been vastly different. And to point a finger the let down was in the hands of the number 10.
Go to commentsI have heard it asked if RA is essentially one of the part owners and I suppose therefor should be on the other side of these two parties. If they purchased the rebels and guaranteed them, and are responsible enough they incur Rebels penalties, where is this line drawn? Seems rough to have to pay a penalty for something were your involvement sees you on the side of the conned party, the creditors. If the Rebels directors themselves have given the club their money, 6mil worth right, why aren’t they also listed as sitting with RA and the Tax office? And the legal threat was either way, new Rebels or defunct, I can’t see how RA assume the threat was less likely enough to warrant comment about it in this article. Surely RA ignore that and only worry about whether they can defend it or not, which they have reported as being comfortable with. So in effect wouldn’t it be more accurate to say there is no further legal threat (or worry) in denying the deal. Unless the directors have reneged on that. > Returns of a Japanese team or even Argentinean side, the Jaguares, were said to be on the cards, as were the ideas of standing up brand new teams in Hawaii or even Los Angeles – crazy ideas that seemingly forgot the time zone issues often cited as a turn-off for viewers when the competition contained teams from South Africa. Those timezones are great for SR and are what will probably be needed to unlock its future (cant see it remaining without _atleast _help from Aus), day games here are night games on the West Coast of america, were potential viewers triple, win win. With one of the best and easiest ways to unlock that being to play games or a host a team there. Less good the further across Aus you get though. Jaguares wouldn’t be the same Jaguares, but I still would think it’s better having them than keeping the Rebels. The other options aren’t really realistic 25’ options, no. From reading this authors last article I think if the new board can get the investment they seem to be confident in, you keeping them simply for the amount of money they’ll be investing in the game. Then ditch them later if they’re not good enough without such a high budget. Use them to get Jaguares reintergration stronger, with more key players on board, and have success drive success.
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