ABs-Barbarians is the definition of meaningless

You wonder how many people watched the All BlacksBarbarians game for 20 minutes or so this morning before realising it wasn’t a Possibles v Probables All Blacks trial.

What an opportunity missed. What a definition of the word “meaningless”.

Rugby had better wake its ideas up. This match could have — and should have — been either an England v All Blacks fixture or, if only a Barbarians game would do for New Zealand rugby’s 125th anniversary, a thinly-veiled Lions team in a “decider” of the drawn series here.

What other sport would miss out on the chance to stage such a worldclass fixture? I know, there are injuries galore, the Northern Hemisphere teams start their autumn internationals the week after, and New Zealand Rugby ended speculation about playing England by confirming they’d rather play the Barbarians because of a busy 2017 schedule.

All excuses. What we ended up with was a Southern Hemisphere extravaganza with one Northern Hemisphere player, an Italian.

Instead, the Barbarians squad contained 13 New Zealanders: Dominic Bird, Ben Franks, Dillon Hunt, Steven Luatua, Atu Moli, Luke Whitelock, Vince Aso, George Bridge, Richard Buckman, Mitchell Drummond, Andy Ellis, Richie Mo’unga and Julian Savea.

Of course, there were obvious peaks of interest such as the something-to-prove performances of Savea and Luatua and the emerging talent of Mo’unga.

But it really did look like a Probables v Possibles trial match — the old All Black method of setting a shadow test team against those who are not and seeing who performs well under pressure.

I think the last Probables v Possibles was in 2005, ahead of the previous Lions tour, under Sir Graham Henry. Such trial matches were previously famous for throwing up bolters — think Grahame Thorne and Neil Wolfe, among others — in an era when selectors could be persuaded by a one-off performance instead of the current system of long-term analysis.

The trial match has been consigned to history, which is where the Barbarians could also reside if matches like this one prevail.

Why no northern players of note? England play Argentina next weekend, Scotland meet Samoa, Wales take on Australia and Ireland the Springboks. Oh, that’s right, and New Zealand face France.

So if the All Blacks back up (even though there will be few involved in both games), why can’t the northerners?

Injuries aren’t a valid reason. The All Blacks are on tour with a third of their top team (Owen Franks, Joe Moody, Brodie Retallick, Jordie Barrett and Ben Smith) missing.

When it came to a possible match against England , both team managements seemed to prefer 2018 even though that fixture is still 12 months away.

But, even if this match had been played between understrength

All Black and England teams (and check out the All Black starting XV), wouldn’t that just build interest for the second match, when all the big boys would be aimed at each other, fuses lit?

A meeting between the two best teams in the world would pack them in, even hastily arranged, although it must be acknowledged that last week it was reported the Barbarians match had already sold 55,000 of the targeted 65,000 tickets.

But this just doesn’t feel like a Barbarians team and it is a crying shame there were no efforts to reproduce something like the famed 1973 encounter.

It probably still rates as the most famous game of rugby played and which contained arguably the best international try (Gareth Edwards’) scored. And not a Southern Hemisphere player in the Baabaas.

That was a quasi-Lions team after the Lions’ series win in New Zealand in 1971 and a controversial All Blacks tour in 1972-73; it produced some glorious, side-stepping, Barbariansstyle rugby with an edge. An All Black loss has never been recalled with such fondness, before or since.

That is the special place Barbarians rugby holds. In these days when money and self-interest rule, the club’s philosophy is attacking, entertaining rugby freed from the intensity of the must-win international programme. That is traditionally followed by, er, entertainment freed from the intensity of the must-win international programme.

This morning’s match might have broadly fitted within the Barbarians’ mission statement but such clashes are at their best when there is an edge between two hemispheres.

Barbarians rugby is needed now more than ever, although now, more than ever, northern players struggle to be released by their clubs.

New Zealand rugby’s 125th anniversary was at the heart of this match, some excuse for the number of Kiwis. The Barbarians’ 125th was two years ago. Hopefully they can go for another 125. This morning’s lineups suggest that might be difficult.

It is a crying shame there were no efforts to reproduce something like the famed 1973 encounter.