THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
THE Barbarians' match at Murrayfield tonight could be the last against Scotland for some years after the SRU confirmed there are no plans to continue with the fixture.

At a press briefing where SRU president Andy Irvine admitted he was "saddened" at leading players' reluctance to turn out for the famous international select, Gordon McKie, the SRU chief executive, said he does not wish to have the fixture in next year's calendar and that no match is planned for 2008.

"The purpose of tonight's game was to give the players a game before they go [on tour] to South Africa, so we didn't have the expense of more time spent in South Africa. It was also planned as a celebration, of the rugby this year and the other sportsmen and women in Scotland who have been successful at the Commonwealth Games and elsewhere.

"But we are unlikely to have another game [next year]. We don't want a game next year and there are no fixtures yet planned for 2008."

The Barbarians have struggled to attract the big stars to games outside England and their pulling power has been called into question this week with the news, revealed in The Scotsman last week, that the entire Baa-Baas squad which lost 46-19 against England on Sunday is swapping the famous black-and-white hoops for a 'World XV' jersey and playing South Africa on Saturday. Because the contract held by Steven Berrick, the agent who oversaw the handling of the Barbarians in recent years, expired on Sunday, all of those players headed south rather than north after Sunday's game and tonight's squad is made up of British-based players instead of Carlos Spencer, Justin Marshall, Thomas Castaignede and Raphael Ibanez.

Irvine, a former Barbarian, is deeply disappointed the Baa-Baas no longer have the pull they had in the 1970s and 1980s when international stars queued up to appear for the touring team. He said: "It has saddened me. Players in my time would give their right arms to play for the Baa-Baas, but now I understand they are paid to play.

"When I was a player the Barbarians were a celebration of rugby but there are now so many fixtures and it's a real problem with congestion. I feel sorry for the players now because there are too many games. The hits are bigger and we're asking them to play more and more games."

Mickey Steele-Bodger, the long-serving chairman of the Barbarians committee, watched the team train in Peebles yesterday, before they linked up with local schoolchildren, and admitted the length of the season was a real problem.

He told The Scotsman: "Andy Robinson informed me there were 170 English players who he couldn't call on for their tour to Australia - players who were either injured, being rested, on the A tour to Canada or with the under-21s in their World Cup.

"I called one club for three players and was told they were all in hospital. They all had to undergo operations which had been put off during the season. That is what we are coming to."

He added: "And yet, I was very disappointed with how the 'star names' represented the Barbarians tradition on Sunday. Most of these guys are in the UK because of the money they get, whereas the guys we have brought to Scotland really want to play for the Barbarians jersey."

This article was posted on 31-May-2006, 07:06 by Hugh Barrow.