Barbarians vs All Blacks XV Preview — The Spectacle of the Weekend You Can’t Afford to Miss

Stars of World Rugby have assembled to celebrate one of the sport’s greatest traditions, Barbarians FC Rugby, with a showcase fixture against the All Blacks XV at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Sunday (13 November 2022).

Sunday’s famous rugby fixture, sees the two sides competing for The Killik Cup. Lining up to be a big rugby crowd pleaser, two trophy-winning co-coaches lead the invitational Barbarians side with Heineken Cup-winning La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara alongside Super Rugby champions Crusaders Head Coach Scott Robertson.

A strong All Blacks XV team awaits the Barbarians with Auckland and Blues lock Patrick Tuipulotu captaining the side alongside seven players with Test experience including Tuipulotu, Aidan Ross, Angus Ta’avao, Asafo Aumua, Luke Jacobson, Brad Weber, and Damian McKenzie. Bryn Gatland, the son of previous Barbarians Head Coach Warren Gatland, is also included alongside the nephew of Barbarians legend Pat Lam, AJ Lam.

There are a number of stars from O’Gara’s Top 14 side La Rochelle as well as other French super sides joining the Barbarians. Alongside Teddy Thomas, Camille Chat and Tawera Kerr-Barlow, returning Barbarians Dilly Leyds and Antoine Hastoy, George-Henri Colombe, Romain Sazy, Remi Picquette and Raymond Rhule are all involved.

Two popular Welsh internationals in Aaron Wainwright and Rhys Webb will line-up alongside popular Barbarian returner Joe Marler and his Harlequins teammate Joe Marchant. Munster prop John Ryan is flying the flag for Ireland.

New Zealand’s George Bridge – who will soon be heading to Mercer’s club Montpellier in France – already has a Barbarians appearance alongside his 18 caps for the All Blacks, turning out against England in 2019, and will be reunited with Scott Robertson, his coach at former club Crusaders.

Former Wales, Saracens and Cardiff centre Tom Shanklin lent his insight into what the Barbarians are all about, along with their mindset heading into a game like this.

“You go from a structured environment in club or international rugby where everything is done for you, made for you everything is planned for you so that you get the best possible results. To an environment where it’s totally relaxed, there’s a bit of training, it’s not structured and a lot of it is player-led.

“You understand when you join up with the Barbarians that you’re there to entertain. You’re not really there to seal out games, take penalties and somehow just win. It’s about the entertainment factor – about inspiring people to want to play rugby and inspire in the Barbarians way, which is to go for it – to be positive. You’re made aware of that straight away and it’s continued through rugby history.”

Shanklin said the ethos and tradition of Barbarians rugby is something players savour. He said: “Gone are the pre-match meals of boiled chicken and pasta. It’s club sandwiches and chips, apple crumble, scotch eggs, pork pies – you can have bacon sandwiches – you can have fish and chips – this is what you get to eat before training with the Barbarians. You think wow this is great! It’s only a week so you’re not physically ruining yourself – but it’s just part of the experience.

“I remember doing a team run in Hyde Park outside the hotel. Normally you’d do a team run in the stadium and it would be very serious, you’d go through every situation, make sure everyone knew what they were doing. Whereas with the Barbarians, it was a few line-outs, the backs did a few moves. We came together for 15 minutes then we were done and back to the hotel to relax.

“It’s a fun environment to be in. No one is going around the game in their head, everyone is just totally relaxed and you feed off that. My first time with the Baa-Baas, I was with the likes of Matt Giteau, Justin Marshall, Joe Rokocoko, you enjoy the atmosphere, the hotel and enjoy people’s company. When you’re in international camp, it’s serious. You’re thinking about the game – thinking about everything really. With the Barbarians atmosphere, it’s just what will happen, will happen.”

Shanklin thinks this Sunday’s game will be an absolute cracker with both teams poised to excite rugby fans with fluid, attacking and eye-catching rugby. He said: “These games appeal because it’s a bit like 7s in some ways – you’ll see unbelievable tries, you see the ball being thrown around which you wouldn’t necessarily see in a Six Nations game.

“It’s great because there’s a great mix of players, some up-and-coming talent alongside some big stars. That’s important. The Barbarians are very good with selection. They’ll put in young, up-and-coming stars – players that possibly not everyone has heard of yet. They will bring them in – and all of a sudden they’ll catapult them to stardom.

“The All BlacksXV easily beat Ireland A who had a pretty decent team out which sort of tells you how good New Zealand are in general and how they play. There’s not loads of pressure on the All Blacks XV – they are almost like an invitational team as well – to grow rugby, to entertain and that’s what you want to see. No one really wants to see 12-9 games unless it’s a World Cup Final, unless it’s knock-out rugby. People want to get inspired and get excited about rugby – that’s why I think the game at the weekend will be brilliant.

“You’ve got two teams that will be playing loose, no-one’s really going to be taking points on offer, they’ll be going for the kill. They’re going to attack, and play out wide. It’s going to be an exciting game because that’s the ethos both these teams will have.

“The Barbarians game is a chance to throw the intensity of internationals out the window, just to see the ball being moved and to watch rugby that will also appeal to those aren’t test match viewing devotees – for people who like to dip in and out of rugby.

“And that’s what you want – you want rugby to have that extra appeal to everyone, not just the hardcore fans.”

Remember, that you can check out the game on in the UK via Viaplay following the acquisition of UK sports streamer and TV channel operator Premier Sports, which held rights for a broad range of live sports coverage including every game live in the BKT United Rugby Championship.