All Blacks hit back to stun Barbarians at Twickenham
THIS was more like a New Zealand trial match than the Barbarians against the All Blacks. As well as the 15 New Zealanders who were in their own national starting lineup, there were 10 more opposite them in Barbarians colours.
That made it an incongruous set-to at the home of English rugby on a wet November afternoon, and you could not help but reflect it is time the Barbarians administrators got their heads together with those in the Premiership, PRO14 and Top 14 to ensure, when matches are played at venues such as Twickenham, Northern Hemisphere players confront teams like New Zealand.
The opportunities to play against All Blacks are much fewer and farther between for players in Britain and Ireland than they are for those from their homeland, where they play each other regularly for their Super franchises.
The unpalatable reality is that wrangles over money – prompted principally by New Zealand’s demand for half the gate – scuppered any chance of England playing them. Instead, rather than a high tensile contest between teams ranked first and second in the world, we had a good look at New Zealand’s reserve strength – with the main beneficiary, the All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.
However, by the end of this five tries to four All Black victory, Hansen may have a few concerns that it might not have been an exacting enough work-out ahead of a potentially gruelling Test match against France in Paris on Saturday.
That over 62,000 people came to Twickenham to watch the match is not only down to an opportunity to see the double world champions, but also the enduring romance of a side with a long tradition of running rugby like the Barbarians.
It was also notable, and surprising, that the out- standing player on the field on this occasion was not a New Zealander, but Quagga Smith, a flanker for the Johannesburg-based Lions, and also a South African Sevens international.
The supercharged Smith said afterwards that he wanted to be true to the Barbarians ethos of running rugby, saying: “I always give my best, and do my best, for the love of the game.”
In this instance Smith’s best was at times more than the All Blacks could handle, and whether he was breaking from deep or winning turnovers, his tenacity and pace ensured that the world champions did not have things all their own way.
lost to Australia a fortnight ago, the All Blacks did not get an ideal start when Richie Mo’unga, the talented young Crusaders fly half, got the Barbarians off the mark by scoring with the game only eight minutes old. Mo’unga moved the ball to his Crusaders team-mate George Bridge, and when he made ground before setting up the ruck, the fly-half looped around on the blindside to take a scoring pass from the former All Black scrum-half Andy Ellis.
Although a barnstorming run from one 22 to the other by the young New Zealand blindside Vaea Fifita reminded the Barbarians of their counter-attacking potency, he did them a favour by disappearing up a blind alley – and then they launched a thrilling counterattack of their own.
It started with Bristol’s All Black blindside Steven Luatua storming downfield after intercepting on his own 22, and when the speedy Bridge steamed up on his outside to take the pass he had just enough pace to hold off Waisake Naholo.
Despite Mo’unga missing both touchline conversions the Barbarians were well worth their 10-0 lead. It did not last long. When TJ Perenara found space out wide he fed Naholo and, riding Mo’unga’s tackle, the winger hugged the touchline before slipping a scoring pass back to Perenara.
With Lima Sopoaga missing the conversion, New Zealand trailed 10-5, and the ebb and flow continued when another interception by Luatua came close before the move petered out.
However, just before the half-hour the invitation side made no mistake when a series of forward pick-andHaving drives saw the Australia lock Sam Carter drill through the tackles of Anton LienertBrown and Ofa Tu’ungafasi for the third Barbarians try.
Mo’unga converted to stretch their lead to 17-5, and they threatened to score again when Beauden Barrett’s missed touchline penalty saw the Barbarians launch a thrilling counterattack with Harold Vorster and Vince Aso combining smartly.
As so often when New
Zealand are stuttering they produce a definitive answer, and this time it came from a flowing attack which saw Beauden Barrett, Ngani Laumape and Perenara combine before Naholo wriggled free to send Fifita over.
Although Barrett could not add the extras, it narrowed the Barbarians half-time lead to 17-10, and early in the secondhalf they came close to going further ahead when Smith’s chip and chase saw he and Naholo both latch onto the ball in what looked like a simultaneous grounding. However, an earlier off-the-ball shove by Richard Buckman on Ardie Savea ruled any try out.
This time New Zealand heard the wake-up call and responded with two tries in two minutes to turn the tables on the Barbarians decisively.
The first came from a quick scrum heel, and with replacement scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow feeding Laumape, the powerful centre bowled over Mo’unga before grounding the ball.
The Barbarians were backpedalling again immediately when Naholo latched onto Mo’unga’s high ball miss before Laumape and KerrBarlow combined for Sam Cane to bash over.
With Barrett converting both tries, New Zealand led 24-17, and as the Barbarians tired they scored again just before the hour when hooker Nathan Harris was the beneficiary of a favourable bounce from a Kerr-Barlow box-kick.
After Barrett converted to make it 31-17, the All Blacks went into lockdown mode – but it was not enough to stop a final Barbarians flourish when a neat offload by Luke Whitelock capitalised on a Sopoaga fumble to send Bridge racing clear.
Then, in cavalier Barbarians fashion, man of the match Smith was given the conversion from in front. Suffice to say, it was the only time he put a foot wrong on the day.