Mixed game from a Wales perspective. I thought there were some real stand-out performances from individuals, but there was also some negatives.
First, the positives. I thought our backrow played superbly well. Faletau started nervously with a couple of knock ons, but as the game wore on he came more and more into it. Great debut by him. Lydiate and Warbs were superb imo. Warburton was everywhere, carried well and forced a few turnovers, glad to see the captaincy didn't have a negative impact on his game like it can to some players. Lydiate once again tackled everything that moved, and carried quite well in the tight. I was pleasantly surprised by Mike Phillips. He had a solid game, one or two silly things such as kicking the ball away after a quick penalty tap, but his distribution was generally quick and crisp. Stephen Jones was solid and depandable as always. I thought Brew was very good apart from his yellow card. He went looking for the ball, made some powerful runs, scored a try, and defended extremely well, including counter-rucking. Finally, I've gotta say that Stoddart was also excellent. Showed excellent pace to score, but also showed some lovely hands on occasion (that pass off the floor was a thing of beauty), and some great strength to bounce off a few tackles. His defensive problems weren't that obvious today, although he could have done better for the Baabaa's final try where he got caught in no-mans land a little allowing Nacewa to step inside.
Now for the negatives. Well as expected Bennett was poor. His lineout throwing was all over the place as always, and he didn't really offer much around the park. Hopefully that will be the end of him! Bevington struggled at scrum time, but to be fair he was prominent in the loose putting in some big hits. I though Charteris was below par aswell. Very careless with the ball at a couple of lineouts, and didn't challenge the opposition throws atall really. Ryan Jones was ok I suppose, but I don't get why he stops before going into contact. He took a couple of quick taps and didn't know what to do after taking them. Carried well in the first quarter, then went missing to some extent. Finally I thought the midfield didn't go that well, Henson started brightly with a nice pass to North, I know it was forward, but it showed how well he can delay the pass to tie in the denfenders. After that though, his decision making was poor and he simply kicked too much ball away. He was honest after the match,in that it wasn't a great return for him. Jon Davies again showed flashes of what he can do, but again final passes etc. didn't go to hand. Expected more from both of them, especially in defense where both were guilty of poor positioning on occasion to allow Basteraud through.
The replacements were a mixed bag. Wasn't impressed atall with Scott Andrews who went backwards in the scrum and gave away countless penalties at ruck time. Lloyd Burns didn't really bring much to the plate either. Alun-Wyn, Turnbull and Priestland were ok, but didn't have a huge impact. Knoyle was there or therabouts, decent showing. However Scott Williams had a massive impact, really livened things up in midfield with some great runs and good straight running when required. Showed some good speed with his first touch of the ball.
Overall, dissapointing we lost, but Barbarians games are notoriously easy to loose when there's so little structure to the game and no penalty kicking at goal. Good to see a couple of impressive debuts and some good performances from individuals. Doesn't look like we're any closer to sorting out our midfield problems though!