Chorus of boos for the Barbarians' adopted 'national anthem' in Cardiff

Saturday’s Barbarians fixture against Wales was supposed to be a fantastic rugby celebration, but it struck a bum note before it even started at the Principality Stadium.

The match was Wayne Pivac’s first game in charge of Wales and it doubled as a fond farewell for departing coach Warren Gatland, who was in charge of the Barbarians after twelve years at the helm of the Welsh. 

However, before a ball was kicked the stadium reverberated to a chorus of boos. 

The expectation for a match such as this was that there would be only one anthem played, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. But the atmosphere took a turn for the worse as God Save The Queen came out over the loudspeakers at the stadium. 

Seemingly, the English anthem had been ‘adopted’ by the Barbarians, which was rather curious as their squad, skippered by Ireland’s Rory Best, contained no England players. They stood there in silence with blank expressions while the music played. 

Fans in the stadium quickly voiced their disapproval of the anthem and this dissatisfaction soon spread online where a number of supporters took issue with what had just happened. 

The booing of god save the Queen was very loud at the Millennium

— MeicApNeb (@meicapneb) November 30, 2019

Surely it should be the "world in Union" as the @Barbarian_FC anthem not God save the queen #WALvBAR

— Phil 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@Phil_rees_wru) November 30, 2019

Incredibly, playing “God save the Queen”, in Cardiff, to herald a Barbarians side coached by Warren Gatland, captained by Rory Best and bereft of English players, prompted a less than euphoric crowd response.

— Mick Collins (@MickPCollins) November 30, 2019

baffling moment to start off #WALvBAR why in god/jesus/allahs name did they play god save the queen for the Baba's? Rory Best looked so awkard trying to not acknowledge it was the song been played #Rugby thoughts anyone?

— G Hofman (@gghofman) November 30, 2019

Has “God save the Queen” ever been greeted with so many smiles in #principalitystadium before? #WALvBAR

— Barry Wyn 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@barrywyn) November 30, 2019

https://twitter.com/GillibrandPeter/status/1200787511414546434

https://twitter.com/matt_rhys_wills/status/1200787882010710016

WATCH: Warren Gatland on what it will be like taking on his old team Wales this weekend as Barbarians coach