Wales hold off Barbarians in high scoring affair

Wales finished the 2019 international programme on a high when they notched a 43-33 victory against the Barbarians in Cardiff on Saturday.

As the scoreline suggests, this was an entertaining affair with the match played at a high tempo and both sides stayed true to their attacking roots throughout.

In the end, 11 tries were scored between these teams with Josh Adams and Ken Owens leading the way with a brace apiece for Wales and their other five-pointers were scored by Johnny McNicholl and Gareth Davies, while Leigh Halfpenny contributed 13 points after succeeding with five conversions and a penalty.

For the Barbarians, Curwin Bosch also finished with a 13-point haul courtesy of a try and four conversions and their other points came through tries from Josh Strauss, Shaun Stevenson, Craig Millar and Pete Samu.

The home side dominated the early exchanges and opened the scoring after seven minutes courtesy of a well-taken try from Adams. Jarrod Evans laid the groundwork with a telling break before offloading to Adams just outside the Barbarians’ 22 and the top try-scorer at the recent Rugby World Cup in Japan did well to round off in the left-hand corner despite a desperate tackle from Stevenson.

Halfpenny showed his class to land the conversion from close to the touchline and Wales continued to hold the upper-hand during the next 15 minutes.

Midway through the half, Wales thought they had increased the lead when Justin Tipuric crossed the whitewash after gathering a teasing grubber kick from Tomos Williams inside the Baa-baas’ 22. The try was disallowed, however, when television replays revealed that Aaron Wainwright was offside from Williams’ kick before playing the ball in the build-up.

The famous touring team soon got their act together and drew level when Strauss launched off the back of a scrum close to Wales’ try-line line before busting through tackles from Wainwright and Tipuric to score his side’s first try, which was converted by Bosch.

But that was as good as it got for the Barbarians during the opening period as Wales soon regained the initiative and were rewarded in the 36th minute when McNicholl scored his first try for Wales on debut after good work from Williams and Evans in the build-up.

The Barbarians were then reduced to 14 men when Marco van Staden was yellow carded for a professional foul and on the stroke of half-time Owens gathered a wayward line-out throw from Rory Best on the Baa-baas’ five-metre line before crashing over to give his side a 19-7 lead at the interval.

FULL TIME 🔴 A high-scoring affair that lived up to its billing. Thanks for an entertaining afternoon, @Barbarian_FC.

Addawyd gêm anturiaethus, a dyna cafon ni heddiw yn y brifddinas yn gêm gyntaf yr hyfforddwyr newydd. ​#HWFN pic.twitter.com/KEMR3pKBDI

— Welsh Rugby Union 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@WelshRugbyUnion) November 30, 2019

Wales started the second half in a similar fashion to the way they finished the first when Owens rounded off out wide five minutes after the restart.

With a one-man advantage, the home side stepped up a few gears on attack during the next five minutes which resulted in another five-pointer from Adams, before Bosch showed a superb turn of speed inside Wales’ 22 before crossing for his side’s second try in the 55th minute.

Bosch turned provider shortly afterwards when he delivered a cross-field kick which was gathered by Stevenson, who dotted down in the right-hand corner on the hour-mark. But that did not deter Wales as they responded with Davies’ score from close quarters soon after.

The next 10 minutes was dominated by the Barbarians, who ran the ball at every opportunity in a bid to narrow the gap and that tactic resulted in Millar and Samu crossing the whitewash. The latter effort was particularly impressive as Samu gathered an outstanding offload from Schalk Brits on his way over the try-line.

That meant Wales were leading 40-33 and although both sides continued to attack in the game’s closing stages, Halfpenny sealed his side’s win when he slotted a penalty from in front of the posts in the 79th minute.

The scorers:

For Wales:
Tries: Adams 2, McNicholl, Owens 2, G Davies
Cons: Halfpenny 5
Pen: Halfpenny

For Barbarians:
Tries: Strauss, Bosch, Stevenson, Millar, Samu
Cons: Bosch 4
Yellow Card: Van Staden

Wales: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Johnny McNicholl, 13 Owen Watkin, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Justin Tipuric (c), 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Adam Beard, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Wyn Jones
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee, 17 Rob Evans, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Seb Davies, 20 Ollie Griffiths, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Sam Davies, 23 Owen Lane

Barbarians: 15 Shaun Stevenson, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Cornal Hendricks, 10 Curwin Bosch, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Josh Strauss, 7 Marco van Staden, 6 Pete Samu, 5 Tyler Ardron, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Campese Ma’afu
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Craig Miller, 18 Hencus van Wyk, 19 George Biagi, 20 Angus Cottrell, 21 Jano Vermaak, 22 Bill Meakes, 23 Matt Duffie

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Dan Jones (Wales), Gwyn Morris (Wales)
Television match official: Ian Davies (Wales)

by David Skippers