Barbarians 25 – 18 All Blacks

Bryan Habana gets his third try for the Barbarians

The best entertainment by far this season at Twickenham was provided by an all-star globe-trotting Barbarians lineup who beat the All Blacks 25-18, with Bryan Habana the star of the show scoring 3 tries. The last time the Barbarians beat New Zealand was in 1973 at Cardiff Arms Park.

All the talk about ponderous kicking-orientated play went out of the window as the two sides entertained the crowd of over 60,000 with dynamic, fast and exciting rugby. Habana’s pace proved too much for the All Blacks as he ran in three fantastic tries, helped on by the slick play of Matt Giteau and the other Barbarians stars who boasted 925 caps between them.

Having studied the team announcements on Wednesday before the game, I had reckoned on Habana being the star of the show. The All Blacks were fielding a less then full strength side, with the likes of Dan Carter content to sign autographs on the touchline rather than be in the playing squad.

Once at the ground, a quick check of the programme showed Habana playing left wing as expected. I wanted to get both All Blacks and Barbarians attacking, so elected to take a South end position on the right side of the pitch. I knew the Barbarians would be defending that end in the first half so I’d get the All Blacks attacking shots I was after. Should Habana make some game winning moves in the second half, I’d be in the right place to catch them as he ran in straight towards me.

And so it turned out. Proper planning put me in the right spot to get Habana running in his third try and with it some cool celebration action. He is so fast that my colleagues on either side were still on their 400mm lenses and far too tight & close. Nobody had time to go to their spare bodies with shorter lenses. I was on my trusty 300mm and nailed some lovely shots which the others will have been unable to get.

I love it when things turn out well.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 21:31 and is filed under Rugby Union and tagged with All Blacks, Barbarians, Bryan Habana, Mastercard Trophy, New Zealand, planning, positioning, Rugby Union, try, Twickenham, win. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.