THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
THE BARBARIANS team to face Scotland at Murrayfield next week will be missing most of their star performers, it emerged last night.

The Barbarians management yesterday announced the team to face England at Twickenham on Sunday, and admitted that many of the squad will then head to South Africa the day before the game with Scotland to play instead for a World XV against the Springboks.

All Blacks Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall, Mark Robinson, Xavier Rush and Bruce Reihana, Wallabies Matt Burke, Joe Roff and Toutai Kefu, French stars Olivier Magne, Raphael Ibanez and Thomas Castaignede and even Edinburgh\'s All Black prop Dave Hewett have all signed up for the Baa-Baas in the Gartmore Challenge on Sunday. None of them will play at Murrayfield three days later.

Stephen Berrick, the agent who handles Barbarians games, has agreed that the players swap the famous black-and-white hoops for a \'World XV\' strip for a match on 3 June which the Boks are using as a warm-up to the two-Test series with Scotland.

Even the Baa-Baas\' coaches Bob Dwyer and Craig Dowd are heading to South Africa, leaving Pat Howard to take charge of a very different Barbarians team at Murrayfield on Wednesday night. There is growing concern that the reintroduction of a well-paid World XV has hijacked the Barbarians\' role but Geoff Windsor-Lewis, secretary of the Barbarians, insisted that was not the case. He told The Scotsman: \"We wouldn\'t want anyone thinking that. This is an unfortunate clash in the calendar, but it\'s a one-off.

We still have a very high-quality cross-section of players coming up to Murrayfield.\"

The Barbarians squad for Murrayfield is to be announced today. It includes Will Greenwood and Kyran Bracken, two British and Irish Lions who will be making their playing farewells to rugby in this match, as well as Bob Skinstad, the former Springboks skipper, and Test centres Tony Marsh and Kevin Maggs. Other players expected to feature include Leon Lloyd and Danny Hipkiss of Leicester, Wales wing Rhys Williams, Sale\'s Steve Hanley and Gloucester prop Olivier Azam.

This article was posted on 25-May-2006, 06:51 by Hugh Barrow.