![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_GettyImages-2283097517jpgBarbar.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWales start their summer preparations against the Baa-Baas before their Nations Championship campaign<\/p>\n
George North during Barbarians training(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Barbarians have promised to “challenge Wales” as they named their team for Saturday’s clash in London.<\/p>\n
Former All Black coach Scott Robertson has named a star-studded Baa-Baas team to take on Steve Tandy’s Wales at the Allianz Stadium this weekend, with Wales legend George North named on the bench for his final outing ahead of retirement.<\/p>\n
Another Welshman, hooker Elliot Dee, starts in the front-row – sandwiched between Giorgi Kharaishvili and double World Cup winner Vincent Koch.<\/p>\n
Another two-time World Cup winner, Springbok scrum-half Faf de Klerk, captains the side – which features 19 internationals from 11 different countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to have a player of Faf\u2019s quality and experience leading the group this week,” said Robertson. \u201cWe have a group packed with talent, who have come together from all over the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaf is such a fierce competitor, he knows how to run a week, so he is driving the boys but he also fully embraces the Barbarian spirit and hits the right balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Baa-Baas have named a physically imposing pack, with Wallabies star Isack Rodda partnering Romain Taofif\u00e9nua in the second-row.<\/p>\n
In the back-row, the invitational club are just as strong – with Australia’s Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, former England international Nathan Hughes and Panasonic Wild Knight Lachlan Boshier starting.<\/p>\n
New Zealand’s Harry Plummer partners de Klerk at half-back, with Munster’s Alex Nankivell partnering Stade Francais star Jeremy Ward in midfield.<\/p>\n
France international Virimi Vakatawa moves to the wing, with another French international – Tom Spring – also in the back-three at full-back.<\/p>\n
Wallabies wing Andrew Kellaway completes the starting line-up.<\/p>\n
On the bench, Robertson has opted for a 6-2 split to put the pressure on Wales ahead of their clash with Fiji in Cardiff<\/a> the following week.<\/p>\n Lions legend North, who announced his retirement from rugby earlier this year, will have to wait a little to draw the curtain down on his glittering career – having been named as a replacement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking forward to another great occasion at Twickenham and the fact that it\u2019s a double-header with the women is awesome,” added Robertson.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have picked a team to really challenge Wales. It\u2019s a big team, with a bit of a Top 14 core, but we also want to move the ball, play what\u2019s on and entertain what is hopefully a big crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an awesome opportunity for this talented group to show what they are all about. They are all here because they have a super talent and we want them to express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Barbarians: Tom Spring; Andrew Kellaway, Jeremy Ward, Alex Nankivell, Virimi Vakatawa; Harry Plummer, Faf de Klerk (c); Giorgi Kharaishvili, Elliot Dee, Vincent Koch, Izack Rodda, Romain Taofif\u00e9nua, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Lachlan Boshier, Nathan Hughes.<\/p>\n Replacements: Harry Thacker, Jack Iscaro, Paul Alo-Emile, Yoan Tanga, Jordan Joseph, Santiago Arata, George North, Liam McConnell.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wales start their summer preparations against the Baa-Baas before their Nations Championship campaign George North during Barbarians training(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[147876,5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-656080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-barbarians-rfc","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}