Baa-baas to take on All Blacks, dash hasty England-NZ Test hopes

Disagree, I have always thought of it more as a complete elimination of vowels...Nw Zlnd, fsh nd chps, etc

Have to say, I lost interest when they started selecting SH players to play SH teams. Don't see why we would need a European organisation to manage and profit from that.

I'm confident there are a lot of people who respect him but just don't voice it. The Roar tends to concentrate the beatching and moaning.

But who's limit are you referring to - northern or southern??

It's not just money OB. Players have a limit on the matches they can play each season. A non-representative game still counts towards the total.

And Argies and Japanese and whoever else, is not playing club rugby up north......

Zero. It will be Australians and South Africans again.

Atm, I'd say zilch unless the clubs relent, on their fee to allow players to wear, the Baabaa jersey.

What are the odds of an all England Barbarians team?

I really must take issue with this poor attempt to make fun of the accent Kiwis don't say Zulland - we say Zilland - the E sound is closer to the Australian I. If you're going to do it, do it properly, the U replaces Is and the I replaces Es

Everyone else understands, that`s why we don't ask you too many complex questions..

AIGS must be cracking a nana they wont get their 8million Niw Zulland dollars... hahahaha Poor wee fullas..

Apparently 5 big ones.

Northern Hemisphere stars stopped turning out for the Barbarians during the autumn around 20 years ago. The last Barbarians side with a majority of European players to face one of the Southern Hemisphere big three, was back in 1996.

I'll never understand why AAC gets so little respect in Australia

Hello OB One have to assume that the NZRU are looking forward to a very prosperous year anyway due to the Lions tour, so an extra million in revenue should not make that much difference (let us not forget that that million could come at a very high price long term due to player fatigue and injuries). And NZRU are not exactly losing money playing the Baa Baas. Playing England in a one of at the beginning of the November tour sounds far from ideal in other aspects also. All the attention would be on that Test and it would be easy to forget that AB's actually have to play Wales, Scotland and France after that Test. Normally AB's beat those teams, but if they are fatigued and maybe a little mentally burned out after Lions and England, AB's would seriously risk to lose a couple of Tests. As good as AB's are, it is important to remember that they are not machines who can perform whenever and wherever. I would have loved for AB's to play a lesser nation instead of Baa Baas, but this time there are no options. The only lesser nation that could field something close to a first team is Japan, and they are already booked to play Wallabies on November 4. Georgia, Romania etc. would not have any player at all available on November 4.

Well it is a team of has-beens tho.

Yeah, I wasn't in favour of an AB/England match either so, I'm glad its not proceeding. I agree with your reasons but also, the financial issues became too much of the focus and finally I'd suggest, the ABs really didn't need this match, to prove anything, to the rugby public. They already have their finger in the pie, for most international awards available, to a rugby side. This game would've just established a recognition factor, with the rugby public without, any award. So, both teams, can just wait till next year, for that recognition factor and the year after, for a major award.

That's it, avoid England at all costs. Don't want that old Greek to sh-it his pants all over his moderate living room floor.

At the end of day it is good news - at least for me - that AB's and England don't meet this year. Any other year I would have been disappointed, but with the Lions tour to NZ just around the corner there is no need for this Test this year. November coming, chances are pretty high that both teams will have fatigued and injured star players. I want both teams to be as close to perfect as possible when they meet each other. Saying all that, any game with the Baa Baas are pretty boring because the games does not mean anything really and rugby reminds me of Harlem Globetrotters (I am not a fan). If the Baa Baas somehow could be a World XV with best players from all around the world, then it would be interesting. But now the game is played a week before the November Tests so no nation or club in Europe will release any players.