Skelton and Kruis to join forces in Baa-Baas engineroom

The Barbarians team set to face England on June 19 at Twickenham has been released and includes former Grand Slam winner George Kruis and La Rochelle’s Will Skelton.

French head coach Fabien Galthié is at the helm of the Barbarians and so it comes as no surprise that his coaching staff have selected a squad filled with Top 14 talent.

Charles Ollivon will captain the famous Black and White and will make his debut for them alongside French teammate and Clermont winger Damien Penaud. Joining the Toulon talisman and former French captain in the starting pack is Will Skelton, fresh off his Champions Cup win with La Rochelle, his teammate and Fijian captain Levani Botia, Lyon’s back row star Dylan Cretin and former England international George Kruis, who is returning from Japan.

Castres Action Hero Tom Staniforth | Le Frecnh Rugby Podcast | Episode 33

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PlaySkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -0:00

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

The Video Cloud video was not found.

Error Code: VIDEO_CLOUD_ERR_VIDEO_NOT_FOUND

Session ID: 2025-06-09:d1093d82c14af94a96fff50c Player Element ID: brightcove-embedded-video

OK

Close Modal Dialog

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

Castres Action Hero Tom Staniforth | Le Frecnh Rugby Podcast | Episode 33

After a frenetic final weekend in the Top 14 regular season, we catch up with one of the key men from surprise table-toppers Castres and the top tackler in the Top 14 this season. Australian second row Tom Staniforth fills us in on his journey from Canberra to Castres, the family environment at the club, how a bunch of battlers go about beating off competition from a host of teams with much bigger budgets over 26 rounds and gives us an insight into what makes a club that often goes under the radar so special. There’s also a look into everything that happened on the final day, a look ahead to the Barrages and we pick our MEATER Moment of the Week…
Use the code FRENCHPOD20 at checkout for 20% off any full price item at Meater.com

Kruis left Saracens in 2020 to join the Saitama Wild Knights and is returning to Europe, having just won the inaugural Japan Rugby League One with the side. He announced a few months ago that he would retire come the end of the season and so this Barbarians appearance could prove to be one of his last in professional rugby.

Other starters in the pack include front rowers Trevor Nyakane of Racing, Pierre Bourgarit of La Rochelle and Toulon’s Jean-Baptiste Gros.

In the Barbarians backline, Galthié has picked Lyon’s Batiste Couilloud at scrum half and Antoine Hastoy at flyhalf, who has just confirmed his departure from Pau to join La Rochelle.

Other players appearing in the starting backline are Clermont’s Tani Vili and Racing’s Virimi Vakatawa in the centres, Lyon’s Georgian winger Davit Niniashvili and Racing’s Max Spring at fullback.

The team is predominantly filled with fringe international players alongside a few big names.

The full squad selected is listed below:

Barbarians squad:

15 Max Spring (France, Racing 92), 14 Damien Penaud (France, Clermont), 13 Virimi Vakatawa (France, Racing 92), 12 Tani Vili (France, Clermont), 11 Davit Niniashvili (Georgia, Lyon), 10 Antoine Hastoy (France, Pau), 9 Batiste Couilloud (France, Lyon), 8 Charles Ollivon (France, Toulon, c), 7 Levani Botia (Fiji, La Rochelle), 6 Dylan Cretin (France, Lyon), 5 Will Skelton (Australia, La Rochelle), 4 George Kruis (England, Saitama Wild Knights), 3 Trevor Nyakane (South Africa, Racing 92), 2 Pierre Bourgarit (France, La Rochelle), 1 Jean-Baptiste Gros (France, Toulon)

Replacements: 16 Danny Priso (France, La Rochelle), 17 Christopher Tolofua (France, Toulon), 18 Sipili Falatea (France, Clermont), 19 Thomas Lavault (La Rochelle), 20 Yoan Tanga (France, Racing 92), 21 Nolann Le Garrec (Racing 92), 22 Louis Carbonel (France, Toulon), 23 Sekou Macalou (France, Stade Français), 24 Thomas Laclayat (Oyonnax)