New Zealand Barbarians

The New Zealand Barbarian Rugby Club Inc., nicknamed the Barbarians, or Baa-Baas, is a rugby union club headquartered in Kingsland, Auckland. The idea came from the concept of the Barbarian F.C. The Barbarians played their home matches at Eden Park.

They have been a part of New Zealand Rugby since the team was founded in 1937 by two ex-All Blacks, Ronald Bush and Hubert McLean, who captained their first game (against Auckland) in 1938.

Jubilee Tour Party 1987
To mark the club's 50th Jubilee, an unbeaten five-match tour to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland was undertaken in March 1987, two months before the inaugural World Cup, where they recorded wins against Leicester (33-3), Wanderers (Dublin) (34-3), Ballymena (29-4), Cornwall (63-9). They also produced a devastating performance in Cardiff, beating the Barbarians 68-16. There were thirteen All Blacks in the party of 22 and a further six future caps, with Wayne Smith being drafted in from Italy as a replacement for one game. New Zealand were emerging from a turbulent 1986, the year of the rebel Cavaliers tour to South Africa and the "Baby Blacks" tests, the subsequent reintegration of the Cavaliers into the Bledisloe Cup games, and the infamous Battle of Nantes. Eight players who had survived November in Nantes toured, as did four Cavaliers.


 * Management staff was: Peter Murdoch (Coach), Kevin Barry (Team Manager), D.E.Kirk (Auckland) Captain, Clive Murdoch (Masseur)
 * Back Threes: G.J.L. Cooper (Auckland), C.I.Green (Canterbury), C, D.J.Halligan (Waikato), J.J.Kirwan (Auckland)
 * Centres: B.J. McCahill (Auckland), N.J.Schuster (Wellington), J.T.Stanley (Auckland)
 * Half backs: S.J.Bachop (Otago), I.B.Deans (Canterbury), W.R. Smith (Canterbury)
 * Front rows: J.A.S.Buchan (Canterbury), W.G.Bunn (Taranaki), B.T.Fitzpatrick (Auckland), S.C.McDowall (Auckland), B.McGrattan (Wellington)
 * Locks: B.L.Anderson (Wairapa-Bush), M.Weedon (Bay of Plenty), G.W.Whetton (Auckland)
 * Back rows: M.R.Brewer (Otago), M.N.Jones (Auckland), A.J.Whetton (Auckland), D.A.Williams (Wellington)

Subsequent NZ Barbarian trips to the UK were undertaken in 1996 and 2003.

1996 tour
The November 1996 matches were part of the ERFU's 125th celebrations with a warm-up fixture against the North Of England played in the snow at Huddersfield ahead of a "test" against England the week after.John Hart's 24-man squad, captained by Sean Fitzpatrick featured 19 All Blacks and four future All Blacks and won both fixtures, an 86-0 win against the North of England for whom twelve first choice selections had withdrawn from the team on the preceding Wednesday and a 34-19 victory against England at Twickenham Stadium.


 * Back three: J.T Lomu (Counties), C.M.Cullen (Manawatu), G.M. Osborne (North Harbour), J.Vidiri (Counties)
 * Centres: N.A.Ieremia (Wellington)*, M.R.Ranby (Manawatu)F, L.Stensness (Auckland)*
 * Half-backs: J.W.Marshall (Canterbury), A.P Mehrtens (Canterbury), C.J Spencer (Auckland), M.D. Robinson (North Harbour)
 * Front Row: M.R. Allen (Taranaki), O.M.Brown (Auckland), M.Collins (Waikato), S.B.T. Fitzpatrick (Capt.) (Auckland)* A.D.Oliver (Otago)
 * Locks: R.M. Brooke (Auckland), I.D. Jones (Auckland), G.L.Taylor (Northland)
 * Back Row: A.F.Blowers (Auckland), C.S.Davis (Manawatu), M.N.Jones (Auckland), D.G.Mika (Auckland), T.C.Randell (Otago)

2003 tour
The 2003 match played at Twickenham was viewed at the time as something of a festival affair to celebrate the home country's recent RWC success. Falling as it did during the British, Irish and European club championships, both sides struggled to assemble "full strength squads" indeed the England XV featured only five RUWC cup winners.Contractual difficulties with clubs releasing players resulted in the NZ Barbarians side being deemed - in comparison to previous touring parties - as at best only "competitive" and the England XV side ran out very comfortable winners, 42-17.


 * Back three: G.P."Jorrie" Muller (Lions & South Africa), R.L Gear (North Harbour), E.Taione (Newcastle Falcons & Tonga), Diego Albanese (Leeds Tykes & Argentina)
 * Centres: D.L Gibson (Leicester & NZ), K.R.Lowren (Waikato), T.A. Vili (Border Reivers & Samoa)
 * Half backs: D.D. Lee (Otago), G.W. Jackson (Bay of Plenty), B.Willis (Harlequins)
 * Front rows: A.K.Hore (Taranaki), M.R.Hurter (Newcastle Falcons & South Africa), D.T Manu (Waikato), S.A.A."Ace" Tiatia (Harlequins & Samoa), T.D.Woodcock (North Harbour)
 * Locks: T.V.Flavell (North Harbour), T.S. Mailing (Otago), N.M.C. Maxwell (Canterbury)
 * Back row: J.Blackie (Otago), S.Harding (Otago), T.C. Randell (Saracens & NZ) (Capt), X.J.Rush (Auckland)

The New Zealand Barbarians were also selected for the All Blacks trial replacing the 'Possibles XV' and in 2009 a New Zealand Barbarians under 85 kg Team toured Australia winning both of their games. The team played against the Māori All Blacks in 2010 at Okara Park, losing 31 – 37 before a crowd of 9,000. A Middleweight Barbarian side was also selected in 2011 to play four games. In 2015, the New Zealand Barbarians won over the Māori All Blacks 17–34.

Other squads
Provincial Barbarians squad to play the British and Irish Lions on 3 June 2017, during the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand:


 * Head Coach – 🇳🇿 Clayton McMillan

Representatives

 * Kevin Boroevich
 * Jonah Lomu
 * Andrew Mehrtens
 * Christian Cullen
 * Ian Jones
 * Mark Donaldson (1977)
 * Sean Fitzpatrick
 * Grant Fox
 * John Kirwan
 * Taine Randell
 * Xavier Rush
 * Wilson Whineray
 * John Afoa
 * Rene Ranger
 * Colin Slade
 * Alby Mathewson
 * Rupeni Caucaunibuca
 * Ben Smith

Playing kit and symbol
The New Zealand Barbarians wear scarlet red jerseys with white shorts. The symbol of the team is a white leaping lamb.