Ryan Giggs, George Best and a wildcard team in the RWC?

Ryan Giggs and George Best represent a host of good footy players who never had the chance to display their skills at the WC.

And that is such a shame.

I suggest that a best of the Rest of the World team be cobbled up as an International Barbarians from the countries that failed to qualify.

And I suggest Bob Dwyer and Geech to manage them.

If you exclude players from countries already in the RWC, what players remain from other countries? I'm struggling to think of many (any)

If I am correct Jiffy never played in a WC so there's your No10

Gavin Henson? - never played in World Cup

bedfordwelsh wrote:If I am correct Jiffy never played in a WC so there's your No10

Didn't he play in '87? I know he toured NZ in '88 - he shone in a team decimated by RL and other defections

To be honest, if I were looking at a Rest of the World Barbarians, I would probably look at cast-offs from Tier 1 nations who didn't quite make the World Cup squad, rather than the best of Uruguay, Kazakhstan and Tunisia.

Also we could just give a pre 1987 team too.

Not quite what was asked for, but you could do a Lions 22 made up of players who potentially won't make the WC:

1. Horan
2. Paice
3. Wilson
4. Attwood
5. Gough
6. Robshaw
7. Fourie
8. Powell
9. Blair
10.Humphreys
11.Brew
12.Barritt
13.Cairns
14.Fitzgerald
15.Brown

16.D Jones 17.Thomson 18.Botha 19.Healy 20.Dickson 21.Goode 22.Sharples

I assume what Portnoy is talking about is, instead of having the Intercontinental Play-off (that Romania won) for a World Cup spot would be that the 20th spot would be given to the Barbarians, and we would pick the best players who otherwise wouldn't make it to the World Cup (so if there was a class player from Uruguay or Spain he would get to the World Cup).

However, in rugby there aren't that many (if any) top players from the nations that haven't qualified for the World Cup. The best players not to make it to this World Cup will be those that weren't deemed good enough by a country that qualified, not those whose country didn't qualify.

Agree with Robbo, the likes of Brits, Mujati, Collins, Evans etc. will be the top players not to make the WC.

Nacewa (???)
Paul Warwick

You could add Regan King and Tim Visser to that list as well.

robbo277 wrote:I assume what Portnoy is talking about is, instead of having the Intercontinental Play-off (that Romania won) for a World Cup spot would be that the 20th spot would be given to the Barbarians, and we would pick the best players who otherwise wouldn't make it to the World Cup (so if there was a class player from Uruguay or Spain he would get to the World Cup).

However, in rugby there aren't that many (if any) top players from the nations that haven't qualified for the World Cup. The best players not to make it to this World Cup will be those that weren't deemed good enough by a country that qualified, not those whose country didn't qualify.

Just to clarify my argument, players missing out on national selection would be excluded from the International Barbarians.

But Robbo's right in by suggesting that the last qualifier place be replaced by a best of the rest side.

Ok so shall we build ourselves a starting 15 so?

So we are picking a squad from a combination of Romania (who would make way for this team), Spain, Portugal, Germany, Uruguay, Brazil, Tunisia, Zimbabwe etc?

What about a player like Tim Visser who wants to go on to represent Scotland, but right now only qualifies for The Netherlands, who haven't qualified?

I wouldn't be able to help with a starting 15 from those countries listed above, if we're banning all players from qualified nations.

kiwi,

Yeah my mistake he did go to NZ in 87.