Wales 49 Barbarians 26

Match Events

Report

Alun Wyn-Jones got a well-deserved try for the Barbarians in a fond farewell as the Welsh came out on top in a thrilling encounter at the Principality.

In addition to the try for Welsh legend Wyn Jones, Simione Kuruvoli scored a brace, and Tom Hooper also scored, but it wasn’t enough as Wales ran away with the 49-26 victory.

The hosts had the perfect start with a try for hooker Dewi Lake who rumbled his way over the line in the third minute after Geroge North opened the space in behind the Barbarians defence.

Despite the early try, Wales were sent down to 14 men with Adam Beard shown yellow shortly after.

The BaaaBaa’s capitalised on the player advantage as Kuruvoli spotted a gap at the base of the ruck, selling a brilliant dummy, and sniped over from short-range.

The hosts struck back with an outrageous try for the ages, displaying brilliant cohesiveness across the board. Rio Dyer was the key with the initial break to put the Barbarians on the backfoot. With a quick ruck ball, Wales were firing, and George North threw a brilliant through-the-legs pass out to Rogers on the wing, who had the walk-in for the try.

The Welsh had one more on the board before the break, and yet again, it was another brilliant score. They came down the short side, and North showed the turn of pace he became famous for; he was brought down but managed to get an offload away. They re-set, and Tomos Williams put a perfectly weighted chip behind it, which Sam Costelow was able to gather and finish.

The first score of the second period was in as quintessentially Barbarians style as physically possible. It was absolute chaos in the first phase after the lineout, which allowed Angus Bell to make a break and find himself in space, rampaging down the middle of the pitch.

He put a grubber in behind for Justin Tipuric to chase and Tomos Williams failed to gather it for Wales and Kuruvoli dropped on the loose ball for the try.

It was followed shortly after by a try that everyone wanted to see. Michael Hooper got the intercept and brought the Barbarians close. After another phase, it was the man of the day and legend of the game, Wyn-Jones, who stretched over for the try.

It was getting closer on the scoreboard, but Wales began to show their might, with Taine Plumtree bringing an immediate impact off the bench for his try.

There was a second yellow of the day, this time for front-row Asafo Aumu for a late hit on Aaron Wainwright.

Wales made the most of it with Wainwright going over for a try off the shoulder of a nice break by Rogers.

The game was getting slightly loose in true fashion in a slightly comical set of phases, but eventually, Hooper went over the line for the Barbarians.

It was to be a grandstand finish for the hosts however with replacement scrum-half Kieran Hardy ended the game with two tries in as many minutes to seal the deal on an emphatic match.