Gloucester 14 Barbarians 62
Michael Cheika’s side warmed up for their date with Argentina at Twickenham by making light of the storm-force conditions in the Westcountry.
There was a brace of tries from Wallabies wing Joe Tomane with the rest shared by Fiji’s Nemani Nadolo, All Blacks Nehe Milner-Skudder, Ryan Crotty and Waisake Naholo, South Africa’s Lood de Jager and Pat Lambie, and uncapped New Zealander Ardie Savea.
Gloucester stayed in touch with a Dan Thomas burst from 20 metres, their scrummaging resulted in a sinbinning for New Zealand prop Jamie Mackintosh and they forced a penalty try in the closing moments.
There was a big gulf in the experience of these sides, with the Barbarians scratch outfit totalling 573 international caps between them against a young home side with a mix of youngsters plus a few old heads like veteran prop Nick Wood.
Gloucester were tenacious throughout, though, particularly at the set pieces, but the cutting edge in the Barbarians stellar back line – with South Africa’s Lambie pulling the strings and Milner-Skudder, Tomane, Nadolo and Co running riot – was irresistible.
When Cheika unloaded his bench in the second half – bringing on the likes of New Zealand’s Naholo, Australia captain Stephen Moore and South Africa legend Bakkies Botha – you get an idea of the riches at his disposal.
Fiji wing Nadolo opened the scoring by barging over on the left before Gloucester were briefly in front when Thomas stole the ball to score and saw his effort converted by Lloyd Evans.
Milner-Skudder – the opening try-scorer in the World Cup final – breezed over for the second and Tomane scored twice in quick succession before Gloucester’s best spell saw them win a string of scrum penalties with Mackintosh ordered off by referee Dean Richards as a result.
However, the Barbarians scored again before the break through Crotty to open up a 31-7 lead with Lambie converting two of the five first half scores into the howling wind.
Gloucester lost No.8 Lewis Ludlow to the sin bin early in the second half, the cue for four more Barbarians tries in an 18-minute spell from De Jager, Savea, and replacements Naholo and Kerr-Barlow.
The Cherry and Whites rallied once more – setting up the position for a drive to the line and awarded a penalty try five minutes from time when their driving maul was pulled down.
But the Barbarians had the last word when Tomane broke out once more and Lambie followed up to touch down their final try with flanker Savea supplying the conversion.
