BRAD THORN WILL bring his playing career to a close by captaining the Barbarians against England at Twickenham tomorrow afternoon [KO 15.00].
The legendary lock will lead the invitational side from the second row in what is his final appearance before hanging up his boots to move into a coaching position with the Queensland Reds in Australia.
Thorn won the 2011 Rugby World Cup with New Zealand, while his remarkable CV also includes a Heineken Cup title with Leinster, a Super Rugby win with the Crusaders, two NPCs, five Bledisloe Cups, four Tri-Nations, four NRL titles with the Broncos in rugby league, as well as a World Club Championship and Super League title in the 13-man code.
A 14-times representative of Queensland in the State of Origin, Thorn was an Australian international in league before going on to win 59 Test caps for the All Blacks in union.
Add to those honours the individual prizes he has picked up over the last 20 years and Thorn is one of the all-time rugby greats. Having played out his final season with the Leicester Tigers, he now calls time on his playing career by leading the Baa-Baas.
Robbie Deans’ men have made a number of changes to the team that beat Joe Schmidt’s Ireland 22-21 at Thomond Park on Thursday evening, with impressive Wallabies flanker George Smith also called on to start.
The explosive Toulon-bound USA international Samu Manoa partners Thorn in a blockbusting second row, while the likes of Gio Aplon, Tusi Pisi and the retiring Ugo Monye start in the backline.
Off the bench, another former Leinster lock will make his final appearance before retiring to take up a coaching position, as Nathan Hines is set to join Vern Cotter’s backroom staff with the Scotland national team this summer.
Barbarians:
15. Gio Aplon (Grenoble & South Africa) 17 caps
14. David Smith (Toulon) 0
13. Joe Rokocoko (Bayonne & New Zealand) 68
12. Wynand Olivier (Montpellier & South Africa) 38
11. Ugo Monye (Harlequins & England) 14
10. Tusi Pisi (Suntory Sungoliath & Samoa) 20
9. Tomas Cubelli (Belgrano Ath & Argentina) 34
1. Saimone Taumoepeau (Castres & New Zealand) 3
2. David Ward (Harlequins) 0
3. Matias Diaz (Pampas & Argentina) 8
4. Samu Manoa (Northampton Saints and USA) 10
5. Brad Thorn (Leicester Tigers & New Zealand, captain) 59
6. George Whitelock (Panasonic Wild Knights & New Zealand) 1
7. George Smith (Lyon & Australia) 111
8. Thomas Waldrom (Exeter Chiefs & England) 5
Replacements:
16. Deon Fourie (Lyon) 0
17. Roberto Tejerizo (Tucuman & Argentina) 4
18. Adam Jones (Cardiff Blues & Wales) 95
19. Nathan Hines (Sale Sharks & Scotland) 77
20. Pablo Matera (Pampas & Argentina) 13
21. Ruan Pienaar (Ulster & South Africa) 80
22. Stephen Brett (Lyon) 0
23. Yoshi Fujita (Panasonic Wild Knights & Japan) 21
* number = international caps.
England:
15. Mathew Tait (Leicester Tigers)
14. Christian Wade (Wasps)
13. Elliot Daly (Wasps)
12. Henry Slade (Exeter Chiefs)
11. Marland Yarde Harlequins)
10. Danny Cipriani (Sale Sharks)
9. Lee Dickson (Northampton Saints, captain)
1. Matt Mullan (Wasps)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (Exeter Chiefs)
3. Kieran Brookes (Newcastle Falcons)
4. Ed Slater (Leicester Tigers)
5. Joe Launchbury (Wasps)
6. Mark Wilson (Newcastle Falcons)
7. Jack Clifford (Harlequins)
8. Josh Beaumont (Sale Sharks)
Replacements:
16. Tommy Taylor (Sale Sharks)
17. Alex Waller (Northampton Saints)
18. Gareth Denman (Northampton Saints)
19. James Gaskell (Wasps)
20. Jon Fisher (Northampton Saints)
21. Will Chudley (Exeter Chiefs)
22. Shane Geraghty (London Irish)
23. Alex Lewington (London Irish)
Put me down for a quarter page
Someone tell mattress mick
“Old Mr Brennan” wont be happy with this development..
It’s just a massive money grab, It’s not even a competitive fight, we already know Mayweather wins. But it really doesn’t matter, Win lose or draw, both fighters will make the ten’s of millions, In Floyd’s case hundreds of millions.
I predict the ‘fight’ itself will be over in less than 10 min. An early and easy KO/TKO win for Mayweather
Look, the fight is what it is! It’s just a money making stunt. I don’t care who wins the fight, I admire two men who can put themselves in the position to make millions in a matter of minutes! It’s bloody brilliant. Fair play to Conor for getting himself to a place where he has the opportunity to do that. Not one person on this page would turn down the opportunity to make that kind of money. It’s win win for them both, I genuinely hope Conor wins, probably won’t happen but anything can happen in a good knock. If he looses who cares, he won’t, he’ll be too busy counting his money to give a toss!
Very bad for boxing ….
@Jah: How? More attention, more newcomers doing their research to familiarise themselves with Mayweather and his previous fights and therefore becoming more interested in the sport in general. It’s a mismatch but everyone already knows that and it’s a huge event for boxing all the same. Even if McGregor somehow won then the public will be satisfied (general feeling is people are rooting for him) so there would be plenty of happy customers in that extremely unlikely scenario.
@Brian: i was hoping my ‘…’ would translate as sarcasm. Alas, I have failed in this endeavour
@Jah: Genuinely. You need to put /sarcasm\.
Now. You wanna scrap on the undercard? We can a pokemom card battle or something.
“pokemom” ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
@Jah: ah… very silly of me
@Brian: if people research Mayweather not only will the discover what a great boxer he was but what an incredible low life woman beater he is too.
@Paul O Mahony: jeekers
@Paul O Mahony: you obviously didn’t do your full research either. would never condone such behaviour but context is key. read into actually what happened including from witnesses and you won’t feel the same I guarantee it.
@Brian: hmmm…..he pleaded guilty on a number of occasions in court and done time for one. Would you plead guilty if you didnt do something? I wonder why he was sent to court if he was innocent? He also came to settlement with other women to keep them out of court. Do you really believe he never touched a woman? What context makes it ok to beat a woman in front of your children?
@Paul O Mahony: Brian has his tin hat on
Look, the fight is what it is! It’s just a money making stunt. I don’t care who wins the fight, I admire two men who can put themselves in the position to make millions in a matter of minutes! It’s bloody brilliant. Fair play to Conor for getting himself to a place where he has the opportunity to do that. Not one person on this page would turn down the opportunity to make that kind of money. It’s win win for them both, I genuinely hope Conor wins, probably won’t happen but anything can happen in a good knock. If he looses who cares, he won’t, he’ll be too busy counting his money to give a toss!