Australia triumph in frantic try feast

Barbarians 35 Australia 49

The Barbarians first played a touring side 53 years ago, coincidentally it was also the Wallabies. Traditionally they are meant to be and have become high-scoring, entertaining affairs, feasts of fast, flowing rugby with torrents of tries. But there is a new element to the tradition in these days of hard-nosed professionalism ­ cash.

Tired Tourists though they might have been after taking and handing out beatings to various countries in the northern hemisphere, there was no hesitation in their acceptance of an invitation to hang on for a few more days to take on a Barbarian 22 coached by a former Wallaby coach, Bob Dwyer. There was apparently £400,000 on offer to the Australian Rugby Union for honouring the fixture and maintaining the tradition. And to be fair, they did too.

Among the dozen tries conjured up by both sides was a hat-trick apiece for the Australia left wing Scott Staniforth and Baabaas right wing Breyton Paulse and not a goal kick was missed either. But it did take almost 10 minutes of frantic forays by the Barbarians before they opened the scoring. Contrary to expectation it did not involve the whole side, as happened in that famous match against the New Zealand All Blacks in 1973, in fact it took just one Barbarian to get the ball rolling.

The Springbok right wing Paulse fly-hacked upfield after the Australia blindside Mark Connors failed to grasp the ball. Paulse picked up and sprinted the remaining 45 metres.

Five minutes later, the French centre Stéphane Glas sliced acutely through the Wallaby defence, snapping up a great short pass from his team-mate Pat Howard on the way through and Braam van Straaten was able to land his second conversion of the night.

But any idea that the Barbarians may have had of hogging the ball and the limelight all evening were dispelled when the Wallabies hit back with two tries in three minutes, the first by full-back Chris Latham, the second by fly-half Elton Flatley.

The try of the match soon followed. Its source was an unlikely one ­ a nonchalant chip ahead by prop Darren Morris ­ something for which he will almost certainly be fined by the front row union. The ball was picked up by the lock Mark Andrews, whipped out to left wing Stefan Terblanche, who used the outside of his right foot to slice the ball infield to his right and the obliging bounce found the flanker Olivier Magne who sent in Paulse for a stirring second try, converted by van Straaten.

Australia took charge after that, scoring three more tries in a sizzling seven-minute spell, Staniforth claiming two and Toutai Kefu ­ normally at No 8 making a rare appearance in the centre alongside younger brother Steve ­ touching down in between. Flatley went in at the interval with a perfect five out of five conversions.

There were slow moments in the second half, although Ben Tune proved awkward to handle and when put into space by Latham in the 49th minute proved unstoppable. Flatley had been replaced at half time but the goal-kicking did not fall off, replacement Manny Edmonds, who converted Tune's try and Staniforth's third 10 minutes later. The Baa-Baas then brought the 40,000 plus crowd to its feet with a fabulous finale as Pat Lam and Paulse completed the scoring spectacular.

Barbarians: Tries Paulse 3, Glas, Lam; Conversions Van Straaten 5. Australia: Tries Latham, Flatley, Staniforth 3, T Kefu, Tune; Conversions Flatley 5, Edmonds 2.

BARBARIANS: P Montgomery (SA); B Paulse (SA), S Glas (Fr), P Howard (Aus), S Terblanche (SA); B Van Straaten (SA), R Howley (Wal, capt); D Morris (Wal), R Ibanez (Fr), D Young (Wales), I Jones (NZ), M Andrews (SA), C Krige (SA), O Magne (Fr), P Miller (NZ). Replacements: R Cockerill (Eng) for Ibanez, h-t; C Dowd (NZ) for Morris, 61-78 and for Young, 79; S Maling (NZ) for Jones, h-t; P Lam (Samoa) for Magne, 50; W Swanepoel (SA) for Howley, 61; C Spencer (NZ) for Montgomery, h-t; M Rogers (NSW) for Glas, 50.

AUSTRALIA: C Latham; B Tune, S Kefu, T Kefu, S Staniforth; E Flatley, G Gregan (captain); B Young, B Cannon, R Moore, J Harrison, T Bowman, M Connors, G Smith, D Lyons. Replacements: M Foley for Cannon, 67; B Darwin for Moore, 65; O Finegan for Lyons, 50; P Waugh Connors, 50; C Whitaker for Gregan, h-t; M Edmonds for Flatley, h-t; S Larkham for Staniforth, 72.

Referee: C White (Cheltenham).