Premiership » News » RugbyU: Edwards try inspires O’Callaghan’s Barbarian dream

RugbyU: Edwards try inspires O’Callaghan’s Barbarian dreamVirgil van Dijk neemt de bal op de volley tijdens Celtic – St. Mirren. (22-3-2014)

Ireland lock Donncha O’Callaghan will realise a childhood ambition when he runs out for the Barbarians against England at Twickenham on Sunday.

Although not normally accorded Test status, matches for the Barbarians — rugby union’s most famous invitational side — have traditionally been regarded as a significant honour for the players selected.

The Barbarians’ most celebrated fixture was their 23-11 win against New Zealand in Cardiff in 1973.

Gareth Edwards’s opening score, when the outstanding Wales scrum-half finished off a seven-man length-of-the-field move initiated by half-back partner Phil Bennett, is widely regarded as one of rugby’s greatest tries.

And it certainly was in the O’Callaghan household where the future Munster second row and his brothers wore out the BBC compilation videotape of 101 Greatest Tries by constantly replaying Edwards’s stunning effort.

O’Callaghan’s older brother Ultan played for the Barbarians against the Combined Services in 2002 and the British and Irish Lions second row said he was delighted to follow him in wearing the famous black-and-white hooped jersey.

“We were a rugby-mad house growing up,” said O’Callaghan after winning selection in a line-up boasting more than 700 caps and captained by Argentina back-row forward Juan Manuel Leguizamon, one of 13 players at French clubs in the starting XV.

“We had the 101 Greatest Tries video, and I remember after about three months you couldn’t watch the 1973 try against New Zealand any more because the tape was so worn, from just rewinding over and over,” he recalled.

“Growing up with three older brothers, when we played rugby in the garden it was always the Baa-Baas (Barbarians) versus Ireland, because no one ever wanted to be Scotland or England!

“Even back then you threw the ball around when you did it. That’s the tradition.

“I’m delighted: I was ready to swim over when I got the call. It’s an honour to be thought good enough even to be in the room with players of this calibre frankly,” added O’Callaghan, himself capped 94 times by Ireland.

It will be an unfamiliar England side that takes the field on Sunday.

Not only is coach Stuart Lancaster already in New Zealand with his initial squad ahead of next weekend’s first Test against the world champion All Blacks, but England players with Premiership finalists Saracens and Northampton are unavailable for Sunday’s non-cap match because of their clash at Twickenham 24 hours earlier.

Uncapped Leicester lock Graham Kitchener will captain England in a side where the most experienced internationals are Bath centre Jonathan Joseph (six caps) and Gloucester’s four-cap wing Charlie Sharples.

However, Lancaster hasn’t ruled out calling up further reinforcements for the New Zealand tour from those who impress against the Barbarians, as well as from the ranks of Saracens and Northampton.

“We have seen 10 players involved in these Barbarians fixtures over the last two years who have gone on to win caps for England,” said Joe Lydon, head of international player development at England’s Rugby Football Union.

Nevertheless Sunday’s match provides the Barbarians with an ideal chance to prove their worth following their much-criticised display in a heavy defeat by the Lions (59-8) in Hong Kong last year — a warm-up for the combined side’s tour of Australia that England’s 2003 World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward labelled “a waste of time”.

While the social side of the Barbarians has always been part of their appeal, Dean Ryan, their coach this weekend, said: “I think everyone has a responsibility to make this fixture competitive because the history of the Barbarians is there, but the here and now needs to be looked after as much as everything else.”

And O’Callaghan for one thinks he might fit in with at least part of the new regime.

“Two of the big values you need for the Baa Baas I might not have had: I’m a non-drinker and I’ve spent my career hitting rucks and mauling!” he said.