The Barbarian Rugby Club, who are known more commonly simply as ‘the Barbarians’ or ‘the Baa-Baas’, are an invitational rugby club that play fixtures against both domestic and international sides. The team are a firm favourite of rugby fans around the world and the Barbarians Rugby team and their founder William Percy Carpmael have been inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame.
Read on to discover even more about Barbarians Rugby. On this page you will find a detailed history of the side and you can also see the team’s latest results and fixtures.
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The Barbarian Rugby Club, who are known more commonly simply as ‘the Barbarians’ or ‘the Baa-Baas’, are an invitational rugby club that play fixtures against both domestic and international sides. The team are a firm favourite of rugby fans around the world and the Barbarians Rugby team and their founder William Percy Carpmael have been inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame.
Read on to discover even more about Barbarians Rugby. On this page you will find a detailed history of the side and you can also see the team’s latest results and fixtures.
The history of the Barbarians Rugby team dates back to 1890 when the club’s founder created a touring side with the aim of taking on the best rugby clubs in Britain. The concept was well supported and a number of leading players immediately joined the side.
In fact, the fixture between the Barbarians Rugby team and Penarth quickly became a highlight of the annual rugby calendar and the touring Barbarians team soon gained prominence. In 1915, the side played in their first international fixture, and they handily beat Wales 26-10.
Several outstanding team performances followed and the Barbarians Rugby side were firmly placed on the rugby map in 1948 when they were invited to face a strong touring Australian side. The Barbarians not only won the match, but they also captured the hearts and minds of the public by playing scintillating rugby. The fixture was so successful (45,000 people attended), that it became a regular feature of the rugby calendar, with the Barbarians playing against a touring Southern Hemisphere side in their last game of the tour.
In the professional era of rugby, the Barbarians Rugby side have managed to gain more regular fixtures against international opponents. The team’s glory years occurred between 2007 and 2009, when the side beat South Africa, England and New Zealand at Twickenham and hosted the first rugby union match at the rebuilt Wembley Stadium.
Over the years, many of the world’s greatest rugby players have pulled on the famous black and white hooped shirts of the Barbarians Rugby team. This includes players who are some of the most recognisable names in the game of rugby, including All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu, Australia captain Nick Farr-Jones and World Cup-winning South Africa captain Francois Pienaar.
Today, some of the world’s great players are still regularly invited to play for the Barbarians Rugby team. For example, in recent years, back row Chris Robshaw, prop Joe Marler and wing Chris Ashton have all played for the team.
