The Rugby Pass Hall of Fame Welcomes: Whoever Is Behind The Barbarians Twitter Account

We found it: the only funny international rugby team Twitter account in the world. Hayden Donnell inducts @Barbarian_FC into the Rugby Pass Hall of Fame.

A good corporate social media account is rarer than gold, silver, or any of the precious metals. Most brands on Twitter, Facebook, and the secret networks where the teens hide, read like badly programmed robots trying to impersonate a human. Rugby teams are no different, regularly churning out aggressively inoffensive messages and sprinkling them with hashtags no one has ever used.

It gets worse when you reach the game’s administrative levels, where all you get is dense blocks of unintelligible text, occasionally broken up by news of Aaron Smith being censured for having sex in a toilet.

Only one team dares to not be awful. The Barbarians Twitter account has been an almost unmediated stream of rugby joy during the team’s recent Northern Hemisphere tour. Its live tweets during games are unique not only for avoiding being very bad, but often being extremely good. @Barbarian_FC started getting flamboyant during the team’s draw against South Africa.

But it really came into its own during their 71-0 thrashing of the semi-professional Czech Republic side.

It followed that excellent joke with a series of zingers directed at Jeremy Clarkson and the anonymous account runner’s lazy, biscuit-addicted lawyer.

At least a dozen more #FactCzechs were posted throughout the game, in the first recorded incidence of a good hashtag. But @Barbarian_FC wasn’t done. It went on to invent a classic commentary box catchphrase in the dying minutes of the match.

Enough. You’ve already made your case.

For services to social media, we induct thee @Barbarian_FC, the rugby Twitter redeemer, into the Rugby Pass Hall of Fame. May you rest forever inside its hallowed walls.