They have no ground. They have no clubhouse. There is no entry fee or subscription. They never play a home match. Players are invited to come on board, go out and entertain and then treasure the memory. The reward is the recognition.

They are as old-fashioned as the footage of McBride, O'Reilly or Slattery straddling the international game and they borrow their values from an era that was diametrically opposed to the modern code. Like All-Ireland finalists, Wimbledon contestants and Olympic Games participants, their attraction lies in the traditional values they continue to possess.

They profess to hold as their most important tenet the determination to play in a cavalier style and to beat teams without applying the win-at-any-cost ethos of modern rugby.

Like many ideas that acquired legs, the concept of the Barbarians came alive on a full stomach. Formed in 1890, after an apparently riotous evening in Leuchter's restaurant, Bradford, when WP Carpmael latched on to an idea of "fellowship", the Barbarians Club has 2,800 or so members at any one time. From the beginning, the club adopted an eight forwards and seven threequarters formation and has never deviated from it. As a result, we get the flowing, attacking, 15-man game known as Barbarians rugby.

It is no coincidence that one of the greatest tries ever recorded on television was scored by a Barbarian when Gareth Edwards encapsulated the team's spirit in 1973 against the touring All Blacks. Now simply referred to as `that try', the memory still follows the great Welsh scrumhalf wherever he travels.

"I'm quite happy to remember that try against the All Blacks in '73," says Edwards. "It must have had a high impact because everywhere I go all over the world people keep bringing it up. It's just one of those moments that people remember. You couldn't say it's irritating that, you know, people always bring it up. I think of it as a wonderful moment in sport and I was happy to be part of it."

The Byron curls and scrubbing-brush sideburns added a romantic sense to the move, which flowed from one end of the pitch to the other after only four minutes play. Cliff Morgan, a former Welsh international and Barbarian, did the television commentary for the match and remembers it as one of the finest occasions of his rugby life.

"There were many great moments for me involving the Babas," says Morgan. "I captained the team against Australia and doing the commentary for Gareth Edwards' try against New Zealand was special. Also, to go on tour with the likes of O'Reilly and Mulligan in '57 was marvellous."

The Barbarians won 23-11 back in '73, scoring four tries to New Zealand's two. The Welsh try-scoring party of Edwards, JPR Williams and John Bevan was crashed by one outsider, Blackrock and Ireland's Fergus Slattery.

"The most important part of the Babas was the people I played with," says Morgan. "You know, I can't remember the results of the games, but I keep in contact with the players I met. Basi van Wyk, one of the great South African flankers . . . he beat the shite out of me for years. Now we're great friends."

For those who were never recognised by their home unions for international duty, the Barbarians offered an alternative form of recognition.

"They always selected a player who was uncapped," says former Lions and Ireland captain Willie John McBride. "I was on that team that beat New Zealand in '73. They selected a guy called RM Wilkinson from Cambridge University. I haven't seen him since.

"In those days it was a very big thing, a special thing to play for the Babas. I don't know what it is like now. I assume they guys playing now are getting paid. I assume they are expected to perform and win. "The Babas was a club team," he says. "You could say the Babas had old standards. It made it a little different and a little special. We went out to throw the ball around and to try and score as many tries as possible. There was no pressure."

Tomorrow's game against South Africa will again feature a selection of Irish players, with Brian O'Driscoll starting, and Malcolm O'Kelly, Andy Ward and Peter Clohessy on the bench. In 1994, at Lansdowne Road, the Barbarian front row saw Keith Wood propped by Clohessy and Nick Popplewell. The Babas won 23-15 with Irish winger Simon Geoghegan streaking off to score a try in the Havelock Square end of Lansdowne Road.

"You lived in hope a lot with the Babas," says Edwards. "Usually the individual talent overrode the lack of preparation.