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Chorus of boos for the Barbarians' adopted 'national anthem' in Cardiff
By Online Editors
Saturday’s Barbarians fixture against Wales was supposed to be a fantastic rugby celebration, but it struck a bum note before it even started at the Principality Stadium.
The match was Wayne Pivac’s first game in charge of Wales and it doubled as a fond farewell for departing coach Warren Gatland, who was in charge of the Barbarians after twelve years at the helm of the Welsh.
However, before a ball was kicked the stadium reverberated to a chorus of boos.
The expectation for a match such as this was that there would be only one anthem played, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. But the atmosphere took a turn for the worse as God Save The Queen came out over the loudspeakers at the stadium.
Seemingly, the English anthem had been ‘adopted’ by the Barbarians, which was rather curious as their squad, skippered by Ireland’s Rory Best, contained no England players. They stood there in silence with blank expressions while the music played.
Fans in the stadium quickly voiced their disapproval of the anthem and this dissatisfaction soon spread online where a number of supporters took issue with what had just happened.
WATCH: Warren Gatland on what it will be like taking on his old team Wales this weekend as Barbarians coach
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Latest Comments
Keep? Do you have any idea what league is like? That is what rugby has turned into, not where it's trying to go. The universal body type of mass, the game needs to stop heading towards the physically gifted and go back to its roots of how it's played. Much like how SA are trying to add to their game by taking advantage of new laws.
That's what's happening, but as Nick suggests the slow tempo team can still too easyily dictate how the fast tempo team can play.
You mean how rugby used to be before teams started trying to manipulate everything to take advantage for their own gain to the discredit of the game.
Go to commentsIs that "paid" or compensated?
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