A night to remember is in store when Swansea RFC host the famous Barbarians at St Helen’s to mark the Welsh club’s 150th anniversary.
It’s a Baa-Baas team packed with the best Welsh talent, most notably the legendary Alun Wyn Jones in what could be his last rugby outing. Jones is expected to play the first half for the Barbarians before leading his hometown club in the second half.
Wales wing Dan Lydiate also starts for the Barbarians, along with Cardiff legend Rey Lee-Lo.
The match begins at 6:30 p.m. and is not broadcast on television. You can follow everything that happens here with our updates and images of the game.
Live updates below:
Barbarians: Damian Hoyland; Taichi Takahashi, King Lee-Lo, Billy Twelvetrees; Alex Woolton; Stephen Shingler, Lewis Jones; Oli Kebble, Kirby Myhill, Enrique Pieretto, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Olly Robinson, Sione Vailanu.
Replacements: Elvis Taione, D’Arcy Rae, Murray McCallum, Matthew Screech, Sam Cross, Harri Morgan, Lloyd Williams, Billy Searle, Tom Howe
Swansea RFC: 15. Gareth O Rees 14. Brandon Wood 13. Joe Thomas 12. Osian Knott 11. Matthew Jenkins 10. James Davies 9. Gareth J Rees 1. Tom Sloane (c) 2. Owen Thomas 3. Richard Murphy 4. Lloyd Ashley 5 Matt Dodd 6. Jay Williams 7. Callum Bowden 8. Joe Greaves
Replacements: 16. Garan Williams 17. Ed Thompson 18. Scott Jenkins 19. Chris Thompson 20. Sam Richards 21. Matthew Aubrey 22. Chris Morgans 23. Willis Wood 24. Hanno Dirksen 25. Tom Crockett
43 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 14-42
Ok, technically Alun Wyn Jones is not dressed in white.
He is wearing Barbarians shorts and Bonymaen socks.
But he’s already racking up some hits for Swansea.
The Barbarians score the first points of the half when Damian Hoyland crosses after a good offload.
Charming impression of Bill McLaren by the stadium announcer. He didn’t get the laughs he deserved.
7:20 p.m.ben james
AWJ in all white
Here comes Alun Wyn Jones, leading Swansea into the second half.
A lovely moment for him.
19:13jon doel
match photos
Some wonderful sights in Swansea tonight…
40 minuteskey event
Half-time: Swansea 14-35 Barbarians
That’s the first half done and dusted.
Just the time for Alun Wyn to change into a different jersey.
There are 6,238 here tonight. That’s a brilliant result.
39 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 14-35
The Barbarians almost score another cracker, but Harri Morgan loses control of the ball when he tries to bunt it.
A few seconds later, Tom Howe (yes, that’s right, now I know who 27 is) crosses for his second.
35 minutesben james
bar update
There’s rugby going on, but I’m half watching, half listening to the situation with the bar.
I hear there’s enough alcohol left for the players.
We can all be calm.
31 minuteskey event
Try Swansea! 14-28
The All Whites top their second!
Hanno Dirksen crosses for the scoreboard.
I just saw Nick Williams handing out bottles of water to the refs.
I know for a fact that not all of your bottles are filled with water.
Let’s take a look at that…
30 minutesben james
we have found it
A public appeal has been made for the identity of 27.
As many in the grandstand would agree, he has Billy Twelvetress hair, but he’s not Billy Twelvetrees.
Unless it’s Billy Twelvetrees.
Apparently, Billy Twelvetrees has cut his hair.
It would appear that the try scorer is Tom Howe. A quick thumbs up in the field confirms this.
27 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 7-28
To quote Bradley Davies, who is playing his last game tonight; “Everyone always says they have no regrets, but I have a lot!”
Mine wasn’t having a burger before kickoff. I’m hungry.
The Barbarians just scored up to number 27. Who is number 27?
I don’t know.
Maybe I would know if I had eaten a hamburger…
22 minuteskey event
Try Swansea! 7-21
My Google Chrome decided to shut down for updates just as Swansea decided to run it from behind their own line.
However, take my word. it was glorious
Alun Wyn Jones with a big punch in midfield. Maybe he didn’t walk away
Swansea fire it up, *absolutely no forward passes on the move*, before James Davies fires a lovely offload for Joe Thomas to score.
The greatest joy of the night.
That was an incredible score.
17 minutesben james
The bar has run out
One of the bars has been sold out of beer.
Big hit, that.
Swansea are awarded a penalty near the half.
Shouts of ‘Tres’ in the crowd.
Meanwhile, Adam Jones just rocked a gorgeous flowery shirt.
15 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 0-21
Stephen Shingler playing the main Carlos Spencer here, hurtling through the gaps.
Taichi Takahashi finishes the move.
At what point does Alun Wyn take conversions?
12 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 0-14
Swansea hooker Owen Thomas almost skidded away from a break.
The locals try to open it up, but Shingler intercepts a pass to score.
He converts.
The score is right this time.
9 minuteskey event
Try the barbarians! 0-7
The Barbarians extended it from a lineout.
Rey Lee-Lo breaks through a gap before giving the ball to Olly Robinson for a score.
Despite the Barbarians’ try, the score reads 7-0 for Swansea.
I love it.
5 minutesben james
swansea accountant
Barbarians on the attack.
“Alun Wyn lurks,” says the man in a beautiful pink and blue shirt across from me.
However, Swansea were pulled away on a turnover.
‘That wasn’t the 10 with the break, was it?’ asks the stadium announcer.
In fact it was.
Then there’s a comment about someone’s teeth whitening exploits in the field, but I’ll leave you guessing on that.
3 minutesben james
lively start
Swansea almost go all the way, but they are in contact.
What an ambition.
Baa-Baas then puts in a grubber but it clears well.
I’m still quietly furious about changing seats, but that probably won’t affect the blog.
1 minuteben james
Kick off
The teams are out.
I have been forced to change seats.
We are underway…
18:22ben james
Grandstand theme (I love it)
So far, so good.
I still live blogging in the grandstand and not off the beach, despite a few dirty looks from the fingers.
The grandstand theme plays while the teams are read.
It could still be changed, mind.
18:17ben james
everything is starting
A man just tried to kick me out of my seat.
The fate of the very much alive blog depends on what happens next.
Someone just moved their finger in my face.
Anyway, 15 minutes to kickoff.
17:56ben james
The weather of the bag of cans
It’s a beautiful afternoon in Swansea. At Radnor, we would call this “bag of cans” weather.
The kind you’d like to sit in with a few pints and enjoy the rugby.
Instead of updating you lovely people with updates on a blog.
A rather heroic effort on my part, it must be said.
17:53ben james
Warm ups
Baa-Baas doing his warm-ups. In this weather, that’s not necessary,
Some are doing sprints, some a little less than sprints.
Some are just making keepie-uppies.
Those are the barbarians, honey.
five pmben james
awesome weather
The sun shines here in Swansea.
It’s glorious that the Baa-Baas are facing Swansea for the first time in 30 years.
Around 7,000 are expected here tonight in St Helen’s, with some children playing rugby on the pitch at the moment.
It’s a party atmosphere and that’s only going to grow throughout the night.
15:39jon doel
Welcome
Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of Barbarians v Swansea RFC from St Helen’s.
It’s going to be fun tonight and it starts at 6.30pm Rugby correspondent Ben James and our photographer are in Swansea to bring you all the action on and off the pitch in what should be a rugby match with a difference.
Be on the lookout for more Alun Wyn Jones conversion attempts, possible alcohol use among players and much more.
Team news above.
