New coach Mike Ruddock enjoyed a winning start as Wales put a poor Barbarians side to the sword in Bristol on Wednesday night. The star-studded BaaBaas beat Scotland at the weekend but had no answer to the impressive defence and pace of the “home” side, who out-scored their rivals six tries to nil.
For the first time in living memory, the run-it-from-everywhere Barbarians side were held scoreless in a match. Wales led 13-0 at halftime with all the points coming from fly-half Ceri Sweeney, including a clever jinking try that opened the game’s scoring and two penalty goals that stretched the lead as well as the crowd’s patience.
Veteran fullback Gareth Thomas extended the lead after some good work from man of the match Sonny Parker, and winger Rhys Williams made things embarrassing for the BaaBaas when he scored in the corner to extend the lead to 25-0. Scrum-half Dwayne Peel, centre Gavin Henson and replacement winger Hal Luscombe added tries as the Barbarians gave up the ghost.
The only sour point for Ruddock was watching fullback Thomas being stretchered off the field – only a week before the squad leave on their summer tour of Argentina and South Africa.
“Alfie doesn’t look too good, although he is up and about,” Ruddock said after the match. “He’s done his ankle ligaments, and even if it did put him out of the first Argentinian Test, I’d take him on tour to get the other two games out of him.”
Ruddock said he was pleased with the performance. “We haven’t had long together and we did some good things out there. We’ve got a lot of work to do before the tour, but I’ll take a 42-0 win.”
Wales: Tries – C Sweeney, G Thomas, R Williams, D Peel G Henson, H Luscombe; Pens – C Sweeney 2; Cons – C Sweeney 3.
Barbarians: 0.
Halftime: Wales 13-0.
Yellow card: N Grey (Barbarians)
