Jonah Lomu, Tim Horan and Joost Van der Westhuizen will head an impressive cast of Barbarians when the invitational team play a three-match tour at the end of the season. The Barbarians will play Ireland at Lansdowne Road on May 25th to mark the 125th anniversary of the Ireland Rugby Football Union, move on to play Scotland at Murrayfield on May 31st before finishing with a match against the yet-to-be crowned English league champions, at Twickenham on June 4th.

All Black winger Lomu, Australian centre Horan, the player of the 1999 Rugby World Cup, and Springbok scrumhalf Van der Westhuizen will be joined by Thomas Castaignede and Christophe Dominici of France, Neil Jenkins and former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio.

Francois Pienaar, the captain of South Africa's 1995 World Cup winning side, will be captain while Bristol and former Australia coach Bob Dwyer who will oversee the team.

"People are worried about the players being involved in too many games but you can only appear for the Barbarians by invitation and clearly those players already pledged to the tour don't feel they are being overplayed," Dwyer said.