Saturday 26th November
Barbarians v Wallabies at Twickenham
Wigan Rugby League star, Sam Tomkins has been given to temporarily cross codes to play for the Barbarians on Saturday in the Killik Cup at Twickenham. The 22 man Barbarians squad is to be coached by New Zealand’s World Cup winning boss Graham Henry and his assistant Steve Hansen. Their squad includes South African winger Bryan Habana, New Zealand’s Jerome Kaino and Richard Kahui plus Fijians Seru Rabeni and Nemia Kenatale. In all, the Barbarians have five members of the All Blacks World Cup winning team in a squad gathered from 10 different countries and with over one thousand test caps between them. South Africa’s Victor Matfield will be playing the final game of his career on Saturday.
Wallabies’ Coach Robbie Deans has named a 26 man touring party for matches against the Barbarians on Saturday and Wales on December 3rd. He will be without several players from the squad that finished third at the World Cup last month. Kurtley Beale, Drew Mitchell, Rocky Elsom and Wycliff Palu are all out with hamstring injuries. Pat McCabe and Dan Vickerman have not recovered in time from shoulder injuries while Quade Cooper (knee) and Sekope Kepu (eye) make up the casualties list. Luke Burgess has left Australia to continue his career in France.
Pekahou Cowan replaces Kepu while Queensland Reds duo Ben Tapuai and Ben Lucas and NSW Waratah Dave Dennis have also been included in the revamped squad.
SportsBet are betting on the Killik Cup match with more than 50 markets in total. Australia are favourites on the head to head at $1.37 to the Barbarians $3.10. Barbarians are +7 on the Line. Other markets include total points, win margin, total tries and first goalscorer.
