James Horwill to captain strong Barbarians side

Barbarians head coach Pat Lam has named a strong starting line-up for their Quilter Cup encounter with an England XV at Twickenham on Sunday.

Harlequins and former Wallabies captain James Horwill will lead a Baa-baas team packed full of Test players.

Horwill is joined in the second-row by Samoa international Chris Vui while the Springboks’ Francois Louw and the All Blacks’ Steven Luatua start on the flanks, with Fiji’s Viliame Mata lining up at number eight.

England international Joe Marler starts at loosehead prop against his countrymen and he packs down alongside Wales’ Richard Hibbard (hooker) and New Zealand’s John Afoa (tighthead prop) in the front-row.

Another All Black, Charles Piutau, will start at full-back with the Wallabies’ Taqele Naiyaravoro and Ireland’s Niyi Adeolokun the two wingers.

Malakai Fekitoa, who was part of the All Blacks’ 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning squad, lines up at outside centre and he is joined in midfield by Mark Atkinson of Gloucester.

New Zealand’s Colin Slade (fly-half) and Rhys Webb (scrum-half) of Wales are the starting half-backs.

There is plenty of experience on the bench with Facundo Isa of Argentina and the All Blacks’ Liam Messam amongst the forward cover while Bordeaux Bègles’ veteran fly-half Brock James is one of the back-line replacements.

Lam is excited about the game as the Barbarians look to repeat last year’s sensational victory over the Red Rose.

“We’ve got really good experience across the board and it’s great that there are nine different countries represented,” he said.

“We’re also delighted to have James Horwill on board — he’s had a tremendous career at the top of the game and to give him the opportunity to play his last professional game of rugby with us is pleasing.

“Overall we’ve selected experience and size up front, exciting players who can make things happen from nothing, and we have some firepower out wide.

“This is a unique team with quality players and it will only play together this one time. So as per last year, I’ll be setting out to get our preparation right on and off the field to ensure we come together as brothers in a short amount of time to hopefully be a world class team on Sunday.”

Barbarians: 15 Charles Piutau, 14 Niyi Adeolokun, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Mark Atkinson, 11 Taqele Naiyaravoro, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Rhys Webb, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Francois Louw, 6 Steven Luatua, 5 Chris Vui, 4 James Horwill (c), 3 John Afoa, 2 Richard Hibbard, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 David Heffernan, 17 Piere Schoeman, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Facundo Isa, 20 Liam Messam, 21 Rhodri Williams, 22 Brock James, 23 Filipo Nakosi

Date: Sunday, June 2
Venue: Twickenham
Kick-off: 15:30 BST (14:30 GMT)
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Alex Ruiz (France), Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Olly Hodges (Ireland)