The New Zealand Barbarians handed the Maori All Blacks their first home defeat in 12 years as they came up trumps 34-17 in Auckland. The weather conditions weren’t conducive to a free-flowing match, but in the last ten minutes the Barbarians brought back an old classic.
The Maori All Blacks had an unbeaten record that spanned 19 matches and stretched back to 2003, but with just four days to prepare, the New Zealand Barbarians managed to end that run of form, and pull together some fancy moves in the process.
With the game in control and the victory theirs, they brought out ‘The Wall’ with just four minutes left in the match. Big Ben Tameifuna flew through the middle and came within millimeters of scoring a famous try, only to be denied as it was ruled that he was short.
So two minutes later when they got another penalty, a variation of The Wall came out, and it resulted in a fantastic try, thanks in part to a sensational offload from Richard Buckman.
The Barbarians scored five tries in total through Blake Gibson, Mitchell Drummond, Seta Tamanivalu, Patrick Osborne, Tom Taylor.
This old school move has been used many times in the past, not always with success and often a cause of controversy around the deception and the laws of the game.
In 2007 we posted a great clip of Sale Sharks having success with the Wall, when Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe scored the classic set piece try.
View ‘The Wall’ set pieces below, and you can view the full highlights on page two
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