Does a relatively low crowd for the game against the Springboks suggest the end is near for the Barbarians?
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Writing in the Irish Independent, Peter Bills believes a disappointing crowd at Twickenham last weekend suggests we should call time on the Barbarians.
"The Barbarians' concept might remain OK for the crusty colonels who still limp along in their wake, their ageing hip bones slowing them to the extent that they have become a mere appendage to a once great club.
"But you know a concept -- an ideal -- is in trouble when the public no longer buys into it. And, in the words of one commentator, the "sparse crowd" at Twickenham last weekend to see the last rites of the South Africans' tour heightened my sense that this whole Barbarians thing is an outdated idea, past its sell-by date.
"You can dredge any memory from the long years of fun this club has had and the pleasures it gave to untold numbers. Those Barbarians tours of Wales over the four days of Easter attracted many of the game's finest players and served to underline the sense of fun that was rugby football."
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