Wallaby playmaker Matt Giteau will get the chance to show his class when he captains a star-studded Barbarians against the Springboks at Twickenham on Saturday.
Giteau will feature at flyhalf in his third appearance for the BaaBaas and will want to make a strong impression having been dropped from the Australian starting line-up on their European tour by coach Robbie Deans.
rugby365
The 28-year-old has struggled with his form in patches this season, that has seen him lose the Wallaby No.10 jersey to Quade Cooper, then more recently the No.12 jersey to Berrick Barnes and to cap it off he is no longer the first choice place-kicker as youngster James o’Connor has taken over than mantle.
“This is a great honour and I am deeply grateful to the Barbarians committee for the confidence they have shown in me,” Giteau said.
The BaaBaas have six wallabies in their starting line-up that also includes South African lock Anton van Zyl as one of the two uncapped players in the side, with New Zealander Colin Bourke who will also relish the chance to prove his worth amongst the international stars.
Barbarians: 15 James O’Connor, 14 Joe Rococoko, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Ma’a Nonu, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Matt Giteau (captain), 9 Will Genia, 8 Colin Bourke, 7 Martyn Williams, 6 Rodney So’oialo, 5 Chris Jack, 4 Anton van Zyl, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Salvatore Perugini.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Yapp, 18 Quintin Geldenhuys, 19 Daniel Braid, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Stephen Donald, 22 Seru Rabini
Date: Saturday, December 4
Venue: Twickenham, London
Kick-off: 14:30 GMT (16:30 SA time)
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Christophe Berdos (France), Peter Allan (Scotland)
TMO: TBC
Daardie agterlyn lyk dodelik.hoop maar die bokke kan die een ook deurhak.gelukkig is giteau kaptein en loskakel en hy was vrot die jaar,sy ego is so groot soos die gat in die asoon laag.ons tekort aan gehalte en ervare senters kan ons seermaak in die game.
@ Piet visagie:
Yes it does look giftig Piet, but as you say an odd choice of an out of sorts Giteau at flyhalf, I thought Berrick Barnes was in the squad but he is not in the match 22? Toeiava (spelling?) would have been a better bet than Rocko on wing too so maybe not quite as lethal a backline as most punters initially would have thought on seeing the Baabaas squad. Also don’t know much about all the forwards but don’t think as a unit they will be that good. In the spirit of this kind of game you would also expect the coach to use all or most of his subs and to be honest apart from Mealamu don’t think much of the rest on the bench. So even though the Boks are playing with a severely depleted time this game may not be as one-sided as many people think and the Boks could even win it in style.
bullscot.barrick barnes plays much better rugby than giteau at the moment..daniel carter would have been great at flyhalf.geen bokke in die backline nie alles te danke aan muir.
@ Piet visagie 3:
Yes I say somewhere that the squad had Barnes and Toeava in it so wondered why they weren’t picked, not even on the bench, then again the ‘squad’ that was listed didn’t even have Donald and Rabini in it so maybe it wasn’t the actual squad.
Agree Carter would have been great, BUT he is the All Blacks trump card and I doubt he would have been available to play this one even if the Baabaas wanted.
Users Online
Total 50 users including 0 member, 50 guests, 0 bot online
Most users ever online were 3735, on 31 August 2022 @ 6:23 pm