I love Baa-Baas but it’s time to scrap this circus

MANY rugby fans enjoyed some of the Barbarians’ spectacular tries at Twickenham but frankly I was not one of them. I have felt for some time that this annual fixture serves no purpose for England in an increasingly crowded calendar and I am now certain it should be scrapped. I speak as a Barbarian who enjoyed a career highlight with them in 1981 when we won the Hong Kong Sevens. I totally get their ethos and traditions, but they must factor in who they are playing and the image they are setting in a global game. This Barbarians game came at a really bad time for England and lessons should be learned. The England guys got a slating in the media afterwards but I genuinely felt sorry for them and would attribute absolutely zero importance to their performances on the day in terms of England selection. Questions should be asked not of the players but of the RFU for putting them through such an impossible afternoon. As England coach I used to hate our Barbarians game every May. You don’t know how to prepare for them and I was just glad to get through them without serious injuries. It has no role in England’s plans for next year’s World Cup. If it’s a circus that Twickenham and the Barbarians want then of course they can have it — but no current senior international, or the England shirt, should be subjected to it. This slot should be used to promote and reward unions such as Georgia and the Pacific Islands and I am confident the English public would equally support such games. The Barbarians’ agenda is totally different. They attract some of the world best players by laying on an end-of-season week of five-star comfort and old-style amateur ambience and then after their first good night’s sleep of the week, they party on the field. We all understand and get that, and the players are good enough to get away with it. The All Blacks or South Africans would just not allow it and I was surprised Eddie Jones did not get involved as for me it was devaluing and undermining what he is trying to build as England look to recover from a painful Six Nations. It’s a loselose for England. They can’t be party poopers, they are supposed to join the ‘fun’ and suddenly they are involved in a madcap game of glorified sevens none of them wants. There was some extremely high quality attacking rugby from the Barbarians and indeed some nice moments from England in attack as well. But two weeks out from a three-Test series against the rejuvenated Boks, an England team should not be playing in a game like that. Just to complete a seriously bizarre and random afternoon, the star turn, Barbarians full back Chris Ashton, is the man England still refuse to select. Outside of rugby there is not a person in sport who understands why England cannot select Toulon’s Ashton — arguably the form wing in world rugby and a product of the Premiership over nearly a decade — but they can pick Brad Shields.