Retiring duo Toner and Wood named to start for Barbarians in Spain

Ex-Wales midfielder Hadleigh Parkes will skipper the Barbarians in Saturday’s match versus Spain, the game that will the last professional appearance for fellow starters Devin Toner, who turns 36 on June 29, and the 35-year-old Tom Wood along with 38-year-old replacement Joe Tekori.

The respective former Ireland, England and Samoan internationals are all set to hang up their boots following the match in Gijon that the Barbarians have completely revamped for following last Sunday’s entertaining win over England at Twickenham.

France coach Fabien Galthie was in charge for that encounter last weekend and he named a starting team that included 14 Top 14-based players along with ex-England lock George Kruis, who was the man of the match in his last game before retirement.

INSIDE THE BARBARIANS | Go behind the scenes with one of the most iconic rugby clubs in the world

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PauseSkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

0:00

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -0:00

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

INSIDE THE BARBARIANS | Go behind the scenes with one of the most iconic rugby clubs in the world

Former Cardiff boss John Mulvihill is this week’s Barbarians head coach and he has named a start XV consisting of eight different nationalities – four Welsh players, three Irish, two each from Samoa and New Zealand as well as one representative from South Africa, France, Tonga and England.

Wiehahn Herbst and Seabelo Senatla had been named in the squad earlier this week but their places have since gone to replacement Allan Dell and starting right wing Owen Lane.

Barbarians president John Spencer said: “We are very much looking forward to this week as we prepare to face Spain next Saturday night. The club is buzzing after a wonderful victory over England on Sunday and this new squad, coached by John, is excited to take up the reins and embody the Barbarians’ ethos and playing style: spirit, passion, courage and flair, united by lifelong friendship.”

BARBARIANS (vs Spain, Saturday):
15. Tim Nanai-Williams (Samoa); 14. Owen Lane (Wales), 13. Rey Lee-Lo (Samoa), 12. Hadleigh Parkes (capt, Wales), 11. Adam Byrne (Ireland); 10. Rhyno Smith (South Africa), 9. Sebastian Bezy (France); 1. Ed Byrne (Ireland), 2. Scott Baldwin (Wales), 3. Charlie Faumuina (New Zealand), 4. Devin Toner (Ireland), 5. Steve Mafi (Tonga), 6. Tom Wood (England), 7. James Botham (Wales). 8. Abraham Papali’i (New Zealand). Reps: 16. Kirby Myhill (Wales), 17. Allan Dell (Scotland), 18. Scott Andrews (Wales), 19. Joe Tekori (Samoa), 20. Rob Harley (Scotland), 21. Dan Baker (Wales), 22. Mathis Galthie (France), 23. Ahsee Tuala (Samoa)