The Barbarians Rugby Team - Now and Then

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Paul_Hesketh]Paul Hesketh
The Barbarians or the BaaBaas as they are often called are a unique invitational team with its origins in the United Kingdom. To play for the Barbarians rugby team is a great sporting honour, if selected the standard of rugby you play requires a high enough free-flowing quality to prove justifiable wearing the famous black and white jersey. The BaaBaas squad choice is not purely based on players from the United Kingdom, it is an all-star team assembled from around the globe with the colours of their parent club still on show through the players match socks, another tradition unique to the Barbarians heritage.
The Barbarian Rugby Club formed by William Percy Carpmael back in the 19th century; his idea of creating a touring team from all rugby sources to take on club and national sides was an instant hit. This philosophy of using players from all sources was recently proven with the surprise inclusion of Willie Mason. The ex Australian rugby league forward who recently converted to rugby union made a cameo appearance in the latter stages of the game against Wales, even producing a match winning moment of brilliance; a choice like this is why the Barbarians allure and longevity in the game has stood the test of time, even in the modern financially driven rugby arena.
Famous players to wear the black and white shirt range from Bill Beaumont to Zinzan Brooke, David Campese to Gareth Edwards to name just few. In the recent 2011 matches (heavily dominated by French and Italian club players) against the English and Welsh, the Barbarians line up proved it remains a truly competitive challenge for any opposition. While both matches were close hard-fought contests, against England the BaaBaas wrestled back a 17 point deficit, managing to convert this into a 6 point lead, with the final score 38-32 in favour of the BaaBaas, even with a slight underlying air of end of season finality it was a stirring match performance.
Two back to back wins against very well established national teams proves there is still a lot of room in the game for an association like the Barbarians, on average the team plays six games a year and they should very much remain part of the rugby calendar for years to come, its tradition of always selecting one uncapped player is something to commend. To pull on the   rel=nofollow [http://www.cottontraders.co.uk/barbarians-rugby-shirt-short-sleeve/invt/ae10426/]Barbarians rugby shirt is part of every professional players bucket list before they hang up their rugby boots.
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Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Barbarians-Rugby-Team---Now-and-Then&id=6368071] The Barbarians Rugby Team - Now and Then