According to the Oxford English Dictionary definition the Barbarians were a brutish and cruel tribe.

Come across a Barbarian in ancient times and you were likely to end up on the wrong side of a bloody beating.

However, the boot was on the other foot on Wednesday night as rugby's team of that name emerged battered, broken and bruised from a tumultuous World Rugby Classic semi-final encounter with the New Zealand All Blacks.

On the sidelines it sounded like two worlds colliding so heaven only knows what it felt like in the midst of it all.

As a consequence the Barbarians' team that turns out for tomorrow's final against the South African Springboks (3.30 p.m.) will be markedly different from that which prevailed 21-15 over their antipodean rivals.

Allan Martin, manager of the home nations' side, said yesterday he anticipated having to put a call out for at least four 'foreign' replacements in order to make up the numbers, such was the casualty list.

"Simon Foale (lock) has got ligament problems and Simon Irvine (centre) has broken his arm," the Welshman said. "We don't know about Nigel Heslop yet - he hasn't broken his jaw (as was first thought). He has certainly displaced it, though - the bottom teeth are not meeting the top teeth properly.

"We are waiting to see if he is able to play but I am sure we will have to replace four players so we are looking at bringing in a couple of All Blacks and a couple of Bermudians."

Tournament rules allow players to be drafted in in such circumstances so long as they are from teams you have already beaten.

It is a good job really considering the punishment meted out in midweek, but Martin said it was all part and parcel of the game.

"It was just one of those things," he said. "It was a tough game, there's no doubt about that, but I don't think it contributed too much. Maybe Nigel's was a forced (injury) - a short arm - but Simon Irvine, for example, had broken his arm last year and this fracture now is under the plate.

"Simon Foale's injury was just a clash of knee on knee while his foot was fixed so that was just a fluke."

Martin said the punishing Classic schedule contributed to injuries to players who were not getting any younger.

"The games are tough here, there's no doubt about that," he said. "Normally, in any season, you wouldn't play three games in a week. You are asking guys who are really finished with top level football to play three games in a week so you are going to get breakdowns . . . you are only human, the body is only flesh and bone and I am sure if you went through the other teams they will have equal injuries. But these ones are exceptional."

That said Martin said there was no talk of raising the white flag when there was a title to be defended.

"There's no point in going in with a defeatist attitude," he said. "You go into every game wanting to win it.

"The Springboks have got a sharpish three-quarter line but I certainly don't think they are unbeatable. Our gameplan is to win."

Prior to that final, the Canadians and Iberians will scrumdown to decide the outcome of the Plate (1 p.m.). And sandwiched in between the men, so to speak, will be the women when the USA and the British Lionesses do battle in their own international clash (2 p.m.). Gates open at noon.