Rugby: Hart revisiting scene of All Black anguish

LONDON - Former All Black rugby coach John Hart returns this weekend to Cardiff, the scene of his last New Zealand coaching assignment a year ago.

Hart resigned as the All Blacks' coach in November last year, the morning after the Springboks beat New Zealand in the playoff for third and fourth in the World Cup.

On Monday, Hart takes the Barbarians side to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to tackle South Africa in the Boks' final game of their tour.

"I hope to get a better result than the last time there," he said.

The Barbarians have been based at Bracknell, in Surrey, in the same camp where the All Blacks prepared for their ill-fated World Cup semifinal against France.

"This is just a bit of fun really for us, though the South Africans will be pretty desperate to win after their loss last week," Hart said.

"If we can get enough ball it will be interesting.

"We have had a few quiet training runs, though it has been difficult getting all the players together and the last do not arrive until tomorrow."

South Africa were last week beaten by England, who the previous week toppled world champions Australia.

The recent performances by England have put in perspective New Zealand's feat in beating them at Twickenham in their final World Cup pool match last October.

The effort took a lot out of the All Blacks.

"That win is probably a forgotten fact. Besides winning the Tri-Nations, it was one of our best results last year," Hart said. "Not many sides beat them at Twickenham. It was a significant win last year.

"There is a lot of trumpeting here where they are at in world rugby, but their backs still have some way to go before they are world class."

Hart would not be drawn into commenting about the player burnout issue or the All Blacks' performances this season. "I am not going to comment about the All Blacks. I have moved on from that part of my life. It's just a great honour for me to be a coach with Bob Dwyer with the British Barbarians," he said.

"They have sold nearly 70,000 seats for the game and players don't get many opportunities in crowded schedules these days to play in these festival-type games."

Six New Zealanders are in the Barbarians squad, Christian Cullen, Carlos Spencer, Ron Cribb, Norm Maxwell, Mark Hammett and Byron Kelleher.

But the exclusion of any French players has angered the national coach, Bernard Laporte.

"It seems that the English and the British, in general, continue to snub us," he said. "There are six New Zealanders, six Australians, four Irish, two English, two Argentines, one Welsh and a South African, but no French. It's a joke.

"What does this mean?

"We reached the final of the World Cup last year. We have just beaten New Zealand, scoring 40 points against them for the second time in 12 months, yet we seem to represent nothing on the planet of rugby as far as the British are concerned."

The Barbarians have denied any intentional snub. President Micky Steele-Bodger said: "The French are in the middle of their club programme and it had been indicated to us, quite strongly, that they did not wish their players to be considered."

Barbarians: Christian Cullen (NZ), Matt Burke (Australia), Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland), Daniel Herbert (Australia), Chris Latham (Australia), Carlos Spencer (NZ), Agustin Pichot (Argentina), Ron Cribb (NZ), Lawrence Dallaglio (England, captain), Jim Williams (Australia), David Giffin (Australia), Norm Maxwell (NZ), Mauricio Reggiardo (Argentina), Naka Drotske (S Africa), Richard Harry (Australia). Reserves: Peter Clohessy (Ireland), Mark Hammett (NZ), Malcolm O'Kelly (Ireland), Andy Ward (Ireland), Byron Kelleher (NZ), Neil Jenkins (Wales), Iain Balshaw (England).

- NZPA