Three Wales internationals will play for the special Barbarians side in a famous Welsh rugby fixture that will raise money for a club hit be a devastating fire
Allan Bateman, centre, will play for the Welsh Barbarians at the age of 61
Wales legend Allan Bateman is set to pull on his boots again at the age of 61 for a special match at Penarth RFC that will continue a historic tradition.
The Welsh side, who were recently devastated by a fire that burned down their clubhouse back in December, are set to take on a special Barbarians side at the Penarth Recreation Ground on Good Friday, in a game that will celebrate 125 Years of fixtures between the pair.
The two sides last faced each other in 1986, but had previously held a traditional Good Friday match since 1901, with over 500 Penarth players sharing the pitch with rugby’s most famous invitational side.
The contest is now set to be revived this week, with several big names to take part. Bateman is set to be joined by Andy Powell and Bradley Davies in a Barbarians side that will otherwise be largely made up of community players from Welsh division one and the Championship.
The club’s commercial secretary Alan Cozens said: “Around 12 months ago, we had discussions with the Barbarians about what we could do to celebrate the 125th year since the first fixture on Good Friday 1901.
“It became apparent that to play a full Barbarians fixture would not reflect Penarth’s current status as an amateur club playing in Div 1 of the WRU community leagues. It would have been a bit of a mismatch.
“So this will instead be a sort of Welsh invitational side “Y Barbariad Cymreig” (“The Welsh Barbarians”).”
Nigel Owens is set to referee the fixture, while Tom Shanklin will compere.
Former Welsh international Allan Martin, who played in the last Barbarians fixture at Penarth, will present match shirts before kick-off, while former British and Irish Lions prop Adam Jones will be on hand for a post-match talk at Penarth Conservative Club.
It’s hoped the event can help raise further funds for the club as they continue to recover from December’s devastating fire.
(Image: Unknown)
“The club basically had the building, the clubhouse that was destroyed, and then the historic building, which is where the stand is.
“There’s another club room which is a bit smaller, the fire barrier has worked and that was undamaged. Well, it’s smoke damaged, but not fire damaged, so we still have that.
“The old building’s gone. So we’ve had some aspirational designs created, and it’s it’s going to become a community hub.
“I think we’re fingers crossed that perhaps at the start, we might have a new and better facility to use years.
“But the council have been great. They’ve been very very supportive and they want to help us as much as we can.
“We’ve raised 30 odd thousand on a crowd funder towards the rebuild. Sport Wales have given us another 15 grand so that’s up to 46 grand so that’s nice. Yeah so it’s all point in the right direction.”
Kick-off at the Recreation Ground is at 2pm on Good Friday.