Graham McKechnie: Barbarians’ ‘homecoming’ feels like match between old friends

Ahead of this Saturday’s match, Northampton Saints’ Club Historian, Graham McKechnie, looks back at the long and intertwined history of the men in Black, Green and Gold and Barbarian FC...

Saturday marks the 72nd time the Barbarians have been to cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens – for a famously nomadic club, this is a place they can (almost) call home.

Only Welford Road, along with some of the great grounds of south Wales, can make a similar claim. And although this is the first match against Northampton Saints, with all of the previous matches against the East Midlands in the Mobbs Memorial Match, the links between the two old clubs are strong with many players having pulled on both jerseys.

It all began with Edgar Mobbs. He ran out at Welford Road for the Barbarians on a chilly day in December 1911, and although his first appearance ended in defeat to Leicester, he quickly became a regular member of this famous club on their Easter tours to South Wales – captaining them for the first time in March 1913 against Cardiff.

He stopped playing for Saints the following season, but the temptation to play for the Barbarians was still strong, with Mobbs turning out for them in Newport later that year and accompanying them to Penarth, apparently as a non-playing squad member, in 1914.

Mobbs and the Barbarians would come together again in 1915, in rather more serious circumstances. Four matches were staged in January and March, with the Barbarians by this time made up almost entirely of men serving in the army. Two games were played against Leicester, one against the Royal Army Medical Corps, and one against a Wales XV – all to raise both money and recruits for the First World War.

The choice of the Barbarians as the opponents for the East Midlands XV was an obvious one for the Memorial Match, given Mobbs’ close links to both sides. But Mobbs also embodied the famous spirit of the Barbarians, playing the game entirely for the fun.

It was a baton passed on – and readily accepted – by the likes of Freddie Blakiston and Eric Coley in the 1920s and Ray Longland in the 30s.

Coley made 17 appearances for the Barbarians, scoring eight tries and captaining them against Leicester in 1930 (while his son David also turned out for them in the 1960s). Longland wasn’t far behind with 15 appearances, but way out ahead of them both is another stalwart of the Saints pack; Ron Jacobs.

Jacobs made his debut for the Barbarians in 1953 at Welford Road. He stands second on the all-time list of Barbarian appearances with 25 to his name, with only the great Irishman Tony O’Reilly ahead of him on 30. In that time, he played against New Zealand (1954) and Australia (1958).

He toured with the Barbarians to Canada in 1957 and South Africa in 1958, and captained them three times – against Swansea, Newport and Canada. Jacobs ended up serving in the committee after his last game for them in 1965, and no Saints player exemplifies the Barbarian ethos more than him.

Of course, there are many more to mention – all great names from Saints’ past. Dickie Jeeps, Jeff Butterfield and Don White from the 1950s. Bob Taylor and Piggy Powell were both there in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

Bob told me recently: “All my time playing rugby was fun, but playing for the BaaBaas was more even enjoyable. You were always playing with good players who were determined to throw it about, that was the accepted priority….and the Baabaas provided you with superb food and drink – with the latter always being to the fore.”

Harvey Thorneycroft and Ian Hunter were regulars in the more modern era, with Nick Beal and Tim Rodber also members of the club. It’s noticeable how many of these names are also in Northampton Saints’ Hall of Fame – being picked for the Barbarians has always been an honour reserved for the best players of their generations.

Tom Wood and Luther Burrell fall into that category – great servants for Saints and big personalities off the pitch.

This may be the first meeting between Saints and the Barbarians, and who knows whether it will happen again, but Saturday afternoon feels like a match between old friends and an occasion to be cherished.