Barbarians announce their squad for weekend fixture against England at Twickenham – Rugby update
Barbarians have announced their 22-member squad for their weekend clash against England at Twickenham on Wednesday, May 25. Barbarians will lock horns with the Rugby Football Union’s English side on Sunday May 29 at Twickenham
in an International match.
The weekend game is the first match of the Barbarians two legged summer tour set to kick-off with the match against the Poms. After Twickenham, the Barbarians will go to Cardiff to play against Wales at Millennium Stadium during
the first week of June 2011. The challenging games are expected to be exciting match-ups that will be a glimpse of what to expect from players in the future.
Barbarian officials announced the squad on the club’s official website earlier today. Besides naming the starting group and bench players, the officials have also named Italy's Sergio Parisse as the captain for the Barbarians
for their game against England on Sunday.
Argentinean born Parisse is a utility front row forward player. He has played 77 international matches for Italy. He is also captaining the Italian national rugby union team since his appointment as skipper in 2008. Praisse
took over the captaincy role from Marco Bortolami.
David Young and Scott Johnson are currently supervising the Barbarians match preparations and have backed the decision to appoint Parisse as the captain. Both of them have spoken highly about the Italian international number
eight and flanker’s on and off the field leadership qualities.
Besides this, the Toulon prop Davit Kubriashvili will make history and become the first Georgian to feature in the starting 15 for the Barbarians on Sunday.
Barbarians’ back comprises mostly of Top 14 club players. Magners League Ruan Pienaar and Tim Visser are the only two non-French players out of the seven-member backs squad. Other backs include Nicolas Jeanjean from Brive, Paul Sackey from Toulon, Benoit
Baby from Clermont Auvergne, and Mathieu Bastareaud from Stade Francais.
The Forward line consists of three Magners league players and four French Top 14 players. Seven players out of the match 22 are from the French Top 14 side Toulon. This includes Toulon’s newly signed Willie Mason who will be making his switch to rugby union
code against the English this coming Sunday.
The match squad includes-
Barbarians Squad
Starting XV
Backs: 15 Nicolas Jeanjean, 14 Paul Sackey, 13 Benoit Baby, 12 Mathieu Bastareaud, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Fred Michalak, 9 Ruan Pienaar,
Forwards: 8 Sergio Parisse (capt), 7 George Smith, 6 Joe van Niekerk, 5 Paul Tito, 4 Erik Lund, 3 Davit Kubriashvili, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Sebastien Bruno, 17 Carl Hayman, 18 Quintin Geldenhuys, 19 Martyn Williams, 20 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 21 Willie Mason, 22 Seru Rabeni.
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