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

Matt Faddes, Barbarian number 5000

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.

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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.barbarianssouthafrica

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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SK 1 hour ago
The times are changing, and some Six Nations teams may be left behind

If you are building the same amount of rucks but kicking more is that a bad thing? Kicks are more constestable than ever, fans want to see a contest, is that a bad thing? kicks create broken field situations where counter attacks from be launched from or from which turnover ball can be exploited, attacks are more direct and swift rather than multiphase in nature, is that a bad thing? What is clear now is that a hybrid approach is needed to win matches. You can still build phases but you need to play in the right areas so you have to kick well. You also have to be prepared to play from turnover ball and transition quickly from the kick contest to attack or set your defence quickly if the aerial contest is lost. Rugby seems healthy to me. The rules at ruck time means the team in possession is favoured and its more possible than ever to play a multiphase game. At the same time kicking, set piece, kick chase and receipt seems to be more important than ever. Teams can win in so many ways with so many strategies. If anything rugby resembles footballs 4-4-2 era. Now football is all about 1 striker formations with gegenpress and transition play vs possession heavy teams, fewer shots, less direct play and crossing. Its boring and it plods along with moves starting from deep, passing goalkeepers and centre backs and less wing play. If we keep tinkering with the laws rugby will become a game with more defined styles and less variety, less ways to win effectively and less varied body types and skill sets.

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