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Barbarians name their team to face Wales
By Online Editors
Rory Best will captain the Barbarians on Saturday against Wales in what is set to be his last match before retirement.
The former Ireland skipper called time on his stellar career when his country was knocked out of the recent World Cup in Japan by New Zealand.
He has since turned out with the Barbarians, featuring in their games against Fiji at Twickenham and Brazil in Sao Paulo.
Saturday’s showdown with Wales in Cardiff is now the last stop on the Barbarians tour and it will spell the end for Best unless rumours of a dramatic final year swansong at Pat Lam’s Bristol proved to be true.
Best is leading out a star-studded Barbarians XV - coached by former Wales boss Warren Gatland - that includes Mathieu Bastareaud, Campese Ma'afu and Pete Samu.
(Continue reading below...)
The game, which is Wayne Pivac’s first in charge of Wales, is part of a Barbarians double-header against the Wales men’s and women’s national sides.
Barbarians (v Wales, Saturday)
Shaun Stevenson; Dillyn Leyds, Mathieu Bastareaud, Andre Esterhuizen, Cornal Hendricks; Curwin Bosch, Bryn Hall; Campese Ma'afu, Rory Best (capt), Wiehahn Herbst, Luke Jones, Tyler Ardron, Pete Samu, Marco van Staden, Josh Strauss.
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Latest Comments
Disagree.
The challenge for the All Blacks now that they have 7 of 8 starting forwards locked in and all but one bench forward (only one loose forward and bench loosie to settle on) is to sort out the starting backline as only 9 Roigard, 12 J. Barrett, 11 Clarke and 15 Jordan had good to outstanding seasons in 2024. All the other backs were inconsistent or poor and question marks going into 2025.
Go to commentshe should not be playing 12. He should be playing 10 and team managers should stop playing players out of position to accommodate libbok.
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