Ireland will use the clash with the Barbarians as a warm up before their tough tour to New Zealand, with Irish coach Declan Kidney experimenting with some new combinations.

After a disappointing Six Nations campaign, Ireland will want to come away with some good results during the mid-year Test schedule, with a Barbarians match a good way to test the depth of the squad.

rugby365 reports as follows:

In the absence of Paul O’Connell and having fought off the challenge for the No.10 jersey, Ronan O’Gara will lead the Irish out at Thomond Park.

Barring O’Gara and fullback Rob Kearny, Ireland are without all their regular first choice stars for the game and Kidney will have a good idea of what he has at his disposal by the final whistle.

The Barbarians were disappointing in their 35-26 loss to England on Sunday, although their second half revival was enough to give England boss Martin Johnson plenty to think about leading into his team;’s tour to Australia.

Having spent another week together, the Barbarians are likely to be a much stronger unit for the match with the usually sprinkling of top international stars that are associated with Barbarians line-ups. Veteran Irishmen Alan Quinlan and Malcolm O’Kelly will be eager to hand out a few rugby lessons to the youngsters in the Irish pack.

The match will be high paced as all Barbarians games are, with the backlines able to take some risks, with a touch of French flair from BaaBaas coach Philippe Saint-Andre.

Players to watch: The sparkling form of Schalk Brits will be on display and Barbarians’ open style of play will bring out the best of the tearaway hooker. Andrew Trimble will want to display his attacking prowess and climb back up the pecking order for a Test berth on the wing in the absence of the injured Keith Earls.

Head-to-head: The two sets of lock pairing will produce an interesting tussle, with the vastly experienced Malcolm O’Kelly and Jerome Thion up against Ireland’s international rookies Ed O’Donoghue and Dan Tuohy. The two youngsters will want to make a big impression ahead of the tour and who better to test themselves against than the BaaBaas men.

Previous results:

2008: Ireland beat BaaBaas 14-39 at Kingsholm, Gloucester
2000: BaaBaas beat Ireland 31-30 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin
1996: BaaBaas beat Ireland 70-38 at Lansdowne Road, Dublin

rugby365.com Prediction: The match is likely to be far more exciting than the England game was and Ireland will come out guns blazing, but the BaaBaas will be far more settled and have enough stars in the mix to create some special moments – BaaBaas by about 10 points.

Teams:

Ireland XV: 15 Robert Kearney, 14 Shane Horgan, 13 Gavin Duffy, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Ronan O’Gara (captain), 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Chris Henry, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 John Muldoon, 5 Dan Tuohy, 4 Ed O’Donoghue, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Marcus Horan
Replacements: 16 Jerry Flannery, 17 Tom Court, 18 Mick O’Driscoll, 19 David Wallace, 20 Tomas O’Leary, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Paddy Wallace.

Barbarians: 15 Paul Warwick, 14 Cedric Heymans, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Seru Rabini, 11 David Smith, 10 Brock James, 9 Pierre Mignoni 8 Xavier Rush (captain), 7 George Smith, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Malcolm O’Kelly, 4 Jerome Thion, 3 Census Johnston, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 David Barnes.
Replacements: 16 Benoit August, 17 Julian White, 18 Rodney So’oialo, 19 Martyn Williams, 20 Byron Kelleher, 21 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 22 Paul Sackey/Fabrice Estebanez.

Date: Friday, June 4
Venue: Thomond Park
Kick-off: 19.45 (18.45 GMT)
Referee: Romain Poite