There may be those who in these days of perpetual competitions and cups welcome the

There may be those who, in these days of perpetual competitions and cups, welcome the haphazard nature of the international fixture list that has just gone by. Indeed, I read of some of the matches as “friendlies” – as if, in the circumstances, they could be anything else.If all three of the principal sides of the Southern Hemisphere were going to be floating about Europe, surely there was a case for trying to ensure that, at least, New Zealand played England and France?Comprehensive coverage of the five European countries (for there is no reason why Italy should be a punchbag) against the Southern Hemisphere would have produced 15 matches This is too many. If only two of the Southern Hemisphere sides had toured, there would have been 10, which could have been fitted into just over a month.My own Britain and Ireland side, by the way, would be: Robinson (England); Hickie (Ireland), O’Driscoll (Ireland), Harris (Wales), Luger (England); Wilkinson (England), Howley (Wales); Smith (Scotland), Wood (Ireland), Vickery (England), Johnson (England, capt), Grewcock (England), Hill (England), S Quinnell (Wales), Wallace (Ireland).. Neil Back has never been one to dip out of a game of rugby, even after being bludgeoned into the middle of next month by one of the biggest Springbok packs ever to take the field in anger. When the Barbarians hierarchy announced yesterday that the England loose forward and occasional captain would miss tomorrow night’s showpiece match with the touring Australians in Cardiff, there was no suggestion that Back was guilty of pulling a flanker, so to speak.
Back emerged from last weekend’s victory over South Africa with a badly bruised hand; indeed, the damage was so considerable that there were dark mutterings about a possible broken bone. He reluctantly ruled himself out of another meeting with the Wallabies ­ he faced them twice for the Lions during the summer, and again with England at Twickenham a little over a fortnight ago ­ but has yet to make a decision on his availability for Leicester’s big Premiership meeting with second-placed London Irish at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday.Rob Howley, the Cardiff scrum-half, will captain the Baa-Baas in front of his home town audience, and will have a fair bit of know-how at his side.

Six Springboks ­ Percy Montgomery, Breyton Paulse, Stefan Terblanche, Braam van Straaten, Mark Andrews and Corne Krige ­ have been named in the starting line-up, along with a couple of highly experienced Antipodeans: Ian Jones, the former All Black lock, and Pat Howard, the Wallaby centre who aims to resurrect a Test career on hold since the mid-1990s.Bob Dwyer, the coach of the invitation side, has acknowledged the Baa-Baas’ tradition of including an uncapped player by picking the New Zealander Paul Miller at No 8. In many ways, though, the most intriguing figure will start the game on the bench. Mat Rogers, a highly successful rugby league wing from Australia, switched codes last summer and is expected to challenge hard for a Wallaby place when next year’s Tri-Nations business comes around. If he shows a little Jason Robinson-style dash tomorrow night, he will help his cause no end.Down among the so-called “developing nations”, the board of Rugby Canada has reinstated Dave Clark as their Test coach in a volte-face of staggering magnitude. The union’s decision to sack Clark last August led to fierce confrontation with the leading players, who had no hesitation in taking the ultimate step of refusing to play a home match with Australia scheduled for last month.

That game was scrapped, as were Tests in Dublin and Edinburgh, when officials admitted they could not field a representative side.Pat Parfrey, the recently-elected president of Rugby Canada, conceded that “due process had not been followed” when Clark was given the push, supposedly for attempting to professionalise the top end of the Canuck game “I’m thrilled by the decision,” Clark said. “It justifies all the turmoil and reinforces what people across the country had been thinking.”BARBARIANS TEAM (v Australia, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, tomorrow): P Montgomery (South Africa); B Paulse (South Africa), S Glas (France), P Howard (Australia), S Terblanche (South Africa); B van Straaten (South Africa), R Howley (Wales, capt); D Morris (Wales), R Ibanez (France), D Young (Wales), I Jones (New Zealand), M Andrews (South Africa), C Krige (South Africa), O Magne (France), P Miller (Otago). Replacements: R Cockerill (England), C Dowd (New Zealand), S Mayling (New Zealand), P Lam (Samoa), W Swanepoel (South Africa), C Spencer (New Zealand), M Rogers (New South Wales).. It is a couple of months since Francis Baron, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, identified the major challenge facing the game over the next decade: the raising of standards for the many, so that the few do not become bored witless. But he was correct to warn that a World Cup needs more than five possible semi-finalists to make an impact on those squillions who do not know a top-class prop forward from the fat bloke next door and care even less.In that context, the past three weeks of international rugby – 17 front-line matches featuring 14 teams, seven of them from the southern hemisphere – have been like manna from heaven. The Australian hegemony has been broken, John Mitchell has introduced a thrilling generation of brat-packers to the New Zealand mix, Argentina have established themselves as a top-six act for the first time in their rugby history, Ireland have shown clear signs of progress and England and France have joined hands across the Channel to end all talk of a “gulf” between the hemispheres, possibly for ever.When Clive Woodward, the England manager, ventured to suggest before last weekend’s emphatic victory over the Springboks that the gap between north and south no longer existed – indeed, had not been in evidence for some considerable time – he was more right than wrong. It took Woodward’s own red rose collective a year or so to pick up the pace being set by the Wallabies, the Springboks and the All Blacks, largely because those three superpowers had embraced full-time professionalism at least a year before everyone else.

The moment England were up to speed, they beat Gary Teichmann’s record-seeking Boks at Twickenham, thereby confirming their ability to win a one-off match against any opposition on earth.Since then, they have beaten the Boks in Bloemfontein as part of a three-match winning streak, and won successive Tests against the Wallabies. Twenty-first century Twickenham is as much a fortress as 1970s Twickenham was a Wendy house, for England have not been beaten in south-west London since Jolly Jonah went through them like a dose of South Seas salts almost 26 months ago. It is by some distance the best home record in world rugby, and that fact alone demands that Woodward and company be placed at, or very near, the top of the tree.The key to all this? Organisation. It is not only England who have capitalised on the increasingly systematic maximisation of playing resources, although Woodward is undeniably a world leader in this area. Ask Bernard Laporte in Paris, or Warren Gatland in Dublin, to explain the sharp upturn in Test performance in recent weeks and months, and they will point their fingers in the same direction.