Henderson to finish off with debut for Baa-Baas

Published on Wednesday 1 April 2009 23:32

ANDY Henderson's swansong in the Scottish game will include a first appearance for the Barbarians after the Glasgow and Scotland centre led a host of his countrymen chosen for the traditional East Midlands Mobbs Memorial Match.

As revealed in The Scotsman ten days ago, Henderson has signed a three-year contract with Montauban in the French Top 14 and will leave Glasgow this summer. He is now back in training after recovering from a broken thumb, but his first game back will be in the famous black-and-white hoops against a Bedford Blues XV next Tuesday.

Henderson will be joined by another Scotland international, Iain Fullarton, the lock who now playing for London Scottish, while Sale's ex-England prop Stuart Turner is the third capped player in the Baa Baas starting side. Alongside Fullarton in the second row is Richie Gray, the young Glasgow lock and Scotland Under-20 captain, while new Edinburgh signing Ross Samson also starts.

Jonny Kennedy, the son of Brian Kennedy, the Sale owner and former Scottish Rugby Board director, starts alongside Henderson in the centre. John Dalziel, the Melrose and Scotland club international flanker, is named on the bench having started in the Baa-Baas 150th anniversary match against Blackheath last month.

This will be the 82nd Mobbs Memorial Match – the longest continuous fixture in the Barbarians' fixture list.

The match is played in honour of Lt Col Edgar Mobbs, the former England, Northampton, East Midlands and Bedford Modern School wing, who was killed leading an assault on an enemy machine gun post at Passchendale in July 1915.

Barbarians (v Bedford in the Mobbs Memorial Match on Tuesday, 7 April at Goldington Road): M Thomas (Newport Gwent Dragons); N Royle (Fylde), A Henderson (Glasgow and Scotland), J Kennedy (Sale), D Jackson (Nottingham); R Clegg (Newcastle), R Samson (Tynedale); 1 D Jacques (Redruth), J Duffey (Nottingham), S Turner (Sale and England), R Gray (Glasgow), I Fullarton (London Scottish and Scotland), C Hammond (Nottingham), H Venter (Coventry), L Sherriff (Nottingham). Subs: D Rosen (Oxford University), D Barnes (Bath), H Head (Richmond), J Dalziel (Melrose), D Wilson (Preston Grasshoppers), J Shanahan (Cambridge), H Luscombe (Worcester).