What really happened behind the scenes of the Barbarians' cancellation
Glasgow Warriors No.8 Ryan Wilson has revealed what went on behind the scenes of the cancelled Barbarians – Samoa match last weekend, and some of the 11th-hour call to arms heroics that were answered by a number of players and coaches on the eve of the contest.
The Dave Rennie coached Barbarians were due to meet Samoa at Twickenham in London but the match was called off just 90 minutes before kick-off on Sunday morning because of an outbreak in the Baa-Baas’ squad. It was the second Barbarians game in the home of English rugby to be scrapped at the last minute in a row after the 2020 event was cancelled after a number of players breached the team bubble.
Yet there were no such shenanigans in 2021, with the team the simple victims of poor luck.
Frustratingly, Wilson confirms that the invitational team had 23 players read to play the game and Samoa were happy to play, but Public Health England stepped in to cancel the match at the last moment.
“The crazy thing was, and I know there’s been a lot of backlash from fans, as in ‘Why was it called off so late?’. Genuinely, we kept pushing the bus back, and we were saying ‘We’re going to make this. It got pretty exciting,” Wilson told The Offload podcast.
“At 12.15 pm we’re in the team room, packed and ready to go. We’re all boots in the bag, ‘right boys, we’re on, come on’ and we’re going on the bus.
“That’s how close we got to it.
“The start of the event. Someone tested positive the day before on a lateral flow. We had been tested every single day. We were lat flowing like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve never done so many lat flows in my life.
“Someone lat flowed positive, so the doc said ‘Come on boys, let’s do it again’. He was isolated, he was checked again and tested negative. So we were like ‘Oh, okay, false positive. Carry on’.
“Then they triple-checked it and the RFU were like: ‘Woah, woah, positive case, we want everyone PCR’ed.’
Called off ? ?
Six positive Covid-19 tests have caused the men's game to be cancelled.
But, the women's Barbarians match against a Springbok women's XV will now be played at 14:30 ? pic.twitter.com/ApJ5dYKzs3
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 27, 2021
“So that night we sat in a line in the team room… it was like hands behind the back job, mouth open, nose out and he [medical professional] went for it. Absolutely went to town.
“Do you know what the ironic thing was? The guy that tested positive for the lat flow was negative the next day. He wasn’t even a positive case. But they did pick up four players, that were positive the next day.
“That night, no one knew the results, no know what was happening. Everything was going ahead as normal. Let’s just prepare for the game.
“It got to the point where we had to replace the player, I can’t tell if it was forward or a back because it doesn’t matter who it was.
“Niko Matawalu, had just played a game at his club and I phone him and said ‘Niks, can you get on a plane?’ He said: ‘I’ll be there tomorrow, no worries.
“He’s on the plane. Even to the point where he phones me from Twickenham, saying ‘Where the **** is everybody?” I said ‘Niks, have you not heard mate? The game is cancelled.’
“So Niko is sat at the ground waiting for us to get there, that’s how late we knew.”
What happened behind the scenes with the Barbarians cancellation?
Captain Ryan Wilson goes through some of the things done to try and ensure the game went ahead ? #Offload pic.twitter.com/UNGrVCWMTd
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 2, 2021
Sadly for the Baa-Baas, the Professional Game Testing Oversight Group and Public Health England deemed the game too much of a risk, despite negative Tests for both camps on the morning.
“It’s not like we all knew. We tried our best, the RFU said no, and then it came down to Public Health England, and they said ‘Risk to heatlh’.
“We spoke to Samoa. We said we’ve got 23 that can take the field. They said were happy to play if you are. We all lateral flowed that morning and all tested negative. We managed to get a team together but they just said it was too much of a risk.
“We were thinking we need players here and we’re not getting too many player the night before.
“Petrus Du Plessis, the Australian scrum coach, he drove four hours through the snow to get to Twickenham to find it out he wasn’t playing either.
Puts a different slant on Brian O'Driscoll's infamous omission from the third test. https://t.co/c4xet0a5ok
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 2, 2021
“Dave Renne had said when he got the [Baa-Baas’] job, that he [Du Plessis] had been told he had a chance of playing for the Barbarians. So Parra, Petrus Du Plessis’ nickname, he had been training like you never believe for two months.”
“He had trained and apparently he couldn’t catch a ball. Bless him, even he turned up. There were a lot of broken hearts. It just wasn’t to be.
Wilson said that there was the team were prepared to play with the personnel they had, even with players playing out of position if need be.
“We did everything we could to get it done.
“We were chucking wingers on the back row, I offered to play 12 if I needed to. We just have to wing it. It almost became exciting.
“I know it’s bad for the people with Covid but this is the spirit of the Barbarians. Throwing people in left right and centre.
“And we could have done it. To be so close for it to be taken away as well.
“I was sat in a room with Rob Kearney ready to play his left ever game of rugby in a Baa-Baas shirt. We were desperate to be out there and it just wasn’t to be.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Ireland Reign Supreme? Really? Of the 6 nations two (Wales and Italy) were not contenders for the title. No credit to Ireland for beating them. A further nation (France) was off the boil. So it was really more like a 3N tournament. Of the two remaining Irish opponents, one (England) is in rebuild but still managed to beat Ireland. The other (Scotland) was an Irish win, but hardly a beating. It was pretty close, despite being an Irish home game. Ireland were excellent early last year, but this year they struggled to win a 6N tournament that should have been unusually easy for them to win. They were not dominant against the better teams, and they certainly don’t Reign Supreme. Let’s hope they reinvigorate their attack before the SA trip.
3 Go to commentsThanks Nick, and totally correct. Definately too many teams which is unfortunately an effect of the 21st century hubris that began after our 2nd World Cup win. Honestly we weren't like that before then. If NZ beat us in a Rugby League or cricket series (which has occasionally happened) they don't all of a sudden think they are our equal or even better than us. Unfortunately for Australia, we got carried away with ourselves and wanted to jump from 4th biggest football code to biggest…in 5 minutes. More teams, more matches against the All Blacks (so we could beat them even more). Bring it on. It’s been all down hill since then. Assuming Melbourne are gone, there are very good reasons to keep the remaining 4 in SR, or so it would seem. The Force?…wronged previously, and have $s. Surely not. The Brumbies?….easily the best performed. Surely not. The Waratahs?….most players (50%) and most followers. Surely not. The Reds?….easily the best current team, and nearly as many players and followers as the Waratahs. Surely not. I’d argue that based on how strong the combined Reds n Rebs would be and how strong a combined team of all of the other Oz SR teams would be, we have players for 2 teams…..which would be good. Good enough for a propper SR competition…or maybe good enough for Japan….if they’ll have us. Existing SR teams?….keep them and have them play a second tier…or maybe NZ's NRC….if they'll have us. This is biting the bullet. We have the cattle
1 Go to commentsbest news and very helpful
4 Go to commentsA year ago Ireland and France looked impressive. In this 6N neither looked special. Both have lost good players, but more importantly teams have figured out how to shut them down. In particular the Irish loss to a rebuilding England and the home game struggle against a brave Scotland did nothing to prove that the Irish RWC result was undeserved. If the Scots can shut down the Irish attack, then SA can do so with interest. Rassie will have watched that game with confidence. Farrell is smart, and the Irish team is talented, so we should expect a more creative game plan in SA. But if all they bring is what they showed against Scotland then Ireland is going to struggle against the Boks. It was a fun 6N tournament, but the win for Ireland was as much about weak competition as about Irish brilliance. It was mostly due to France being off the boil, Wales and Italy not being contenders, and Scotland being a home game. England are looking much better, but “much better” should not be enough to topple a team that is supposed by some to be The Best in the World. I hope that Ireland can bump it up a notch or two for the Bok tour. A year ago they were fantastic to watch. It would be great to see that again.
24 Go to commentsLooking forward to the Wallabies being competitive again. No doubt that Joe can get them back on track.
1 Go to commentsThanks, Nick, not only for this fine article, but for all the others during 6N 2024. I really enjoyed this 2024 tournament, and felt it was one of the best for many years. That final match in Lyons was really good. England were certainly unlucky when that speculative hack by Ramos lead to a French try. It could just so easily have landed in English hand.s, and they score at the other end. I did think though that the French played some great rugby, and some of their driving play in the forwards was just fearsome. I watched Meafou with interest, and he has a good start to his career. It is interesting to compare him with Will Skelton. Lot of similarities, though so far Meafou has not shown any offloading threat. All credit to Borthwick for being prepared to change, and what great result, even if that last game was lost at the death. I feel they are a real chance to cause the AB’s problems this winter/summer. Finally a comment on Ireland. I thought their last game was their worst, and they did not look like the world’s No 2 side at all. What really worries me is that the loss to England was, in my view, down to poor decision making by the coaching group, and ofc Andy Farrell wears that. It was a big mistake to move JGP away from scrum half. Murray should have been the one to go to the wing. And the “finishers” should have been on the field earlier. And this is the second time this has happened. The RWC Qf against the AB’s, and not getting Crowley onto the field was a huge mistake. Finally, finally, watching Italy play was a joy. How wonderful that they are no longer the punchbag of the 6 N.
44 Go to commentsGreat story. Rugby needs new investment in teams like Brussels another pro league in Europe would be great.
1 Go to commentsAlso, looking at the data from last year, it seemed like by far the two biggest predictors of success were (1) kicking more than your opponents, and (2) having a higher rate of line-out wins than your opponents. I haven’t gone through the stats this year with a fine tooth comb, but the increase in kicks per game and the increase in tries from lineouts would suggest that these two metrics are only getting more important. England’s move away from a kick-heavy game to win against Ireland was seen by some as evidence that running rugby is on the rise. Alternatively it could be taken as evidence that if one team kicks more, and the other team wins more lineouts (as England did) a match is bound to be close to a draw.
3 Go to commentsI have been finding it odd that points per 22 entry has become such a talked about stat, given that your points per entry can be driven down by having more entries. These data would seem to confirm that it isn’t a useful metric, or at any rate is less useful than total entries.
3 Go to commentsI think the last two games England have played is some of their best rugby they have played under Borthwick. There has been a lot more attacking instinct and as a reward have created some well worked tries. Ollie Lawrence is a good foil at 12 as he offers the hard direct lines whilst the rest of the backs can play open. As much as it pains me to say but I do hope England keep playing this way. On a side note my favourite try of the weekend was Lorenzo Pani’s for the nice loop play that put him away and his finish was excellent. Thanks as always Nick.
44 Go to commentsMost exciting player on the planet right now, worth the price of a ticket.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith and Ireland live rent free in Safa’s heads. Their comments only triggers because its true. If the Boks had dismantled a 14 man AB’s, then there would be more respect. But they didnt, in fact quite the opposite, the 14 man NZ were clearly better. And the Bok have always been ordinary between RWC’s, thats why their supporters are now ‘only RWC’s matter’. They know thats BS. Its BS to both AB’s and Bok’s due to their history. But now its all the Safas have. Now we’ll hear excuses when they lose “oh we didnt have all our players available, the ABs/France/Eng/Irel were at full strength”, forgetting for a minute that its because of their own dumb policy. Oh well, makes a change from blaming ‘cheating refs’.
24 Go to commentsNo Nick, they did not, in fact, justify any ‘probables’ label. At no time did they seriously compete for the championship. Ireland led from start to finish and in the end, as a result of glaring referee errors, were never under serious pressure to lose their crown.
44 Go to commentsMoney for him, and his family, has been the sole motivator since he signed for Queensland aged 17. Why else sign for Melbourne. Tupou is poorly advised. If he’d stayed and developed in NZ he would have had a long Test career. If Leinster offer him a few more coins than he’s currently earning, he’s goneburger.
4 Go to commentsFinn. No one would say Ford had played well up until the last game. One standout performance in 5 is hardly in form . It should be a given that a 10 will control play . Not in Fords case be praised for suddenly doing so. Where was he against Scotland ,Italy. The pundits were saying how far away from play he was standing and one even said that the Ireland game was his last chance saloon to perform . Not exactly top form catching anyones eye. If he can play like this game after game then great. Keep him in . But after 90 odd caps we all know he just doesnt keep it going . By all means keep him there but the issue is that Borthwick will persist even when he plays poorly. Which is more often than not. Thats why i am concerned that Smith ,despite fab form , cannot get a game at his preferred spot. Can you imagine Ford at full back .
5 Go to commentsI do not really get why put Ollivon at 6 when he’s a 7, while Cros was the best Frenchman of the tournament, playing at…6. His only game replacing Aldritt at 8 doesn’t change much in terms of his impact. Lamaro was also outstanding in that brilliant Italian side, probably better than Reffell. So putting 2 Welsh players from the wooden spoon holders, and none of the 4th nation (Scotland) is also strange. Is it about showing that in this harsh transition Wales is, there were some standouts…?
6 Go to commentsThe events at this year’s six nations should undermine many of the arguments made against promotion and relegation between the six nations and the REC. If Italy had been allowed to yo-yo between divisions it conceivably could have really hurt their development, but if Italy, Wales, and Scotland are all at risk of relegation, with none of them being relegated more often than once every 3 or 4 years, you’d have to back all of them to muddle on through it, especially when you factor in the likelihood they’ll still be guaranteed world league matches against tier 1 opponents. Another way of looking at italys resurgence would be to say that the development model of adding an extra team to the six nations has worked, and now must be done again. Georgia could join to make it a 7 team round robin, and if and when Georgia demonstrate an ability to consistently win games, Portugal can also be added to make it an 8 team 2 conference competition. Frankly at this point I think it falls to world rugby to demand that the 6N act in the interests of the game. If the 6N won’t commit to expansion then the 6N teams should be handicapped in world cup draws (i.e. world cup seedings would not be based on their ranking points, but on their ranking points minus a 5 point penalty).
6 Go to commentsSteve Borthwick deserves credit for releasing the shackles on his England side and letting them play in a manner that somewhat resembles the top sides in the Gallagher Premiership. Will they revert to type in New Zealand in July.?
44 Go to commentsJames Lowe wouldn't get in any other 6N team. He's a great example of Farrell’s brilliance, and the Irish system. He is slow. His footwork is poor. But he fits perfectly in that Irish system, and has a superb impact. But put him in another team, and he'll look bang average.
6 Go to commentsCrusaders reached their heights through recruitment of North Island players, often leaving those NI teams bereft of key players. Example: Scott Barrett and Sam Whitelock robbed the Canes of their lineout and AB locks. For years the Canes have struggled at lock. This rabid recruitment was iniated by rule changes by a Crusader dominated NZR Head Office. Now this aggressive recruitment has back-fired, going after young inside back Hamilton Boys stars. They now have 4 Chiefs region 10s and not one with the requisite experience at Super level. Problems of their own making!
4 Go to comments