Barbarians 21 All Blacks 15

It wasn't pretty but the Barbarians last night advanced to the finals of the World Rugby Classic with a hard-fought 21-15 victory over a determined All Blacks line-up.

However, amid the rejoicing at having earned the right to defend their title, the men in pink shirts were well aware that Sunday's assignment against either South Africa or Argentina was already going to be doubly difficult given a plethora of injuries in their camp - and to some particularly vital players.

The Barbarians had summoned the services of Bermudians James Holborn and Jason Scott - in for Ian Cocoran and Aadel Kardoni - last night and the prospect of increasing the local contribution to their cause loomed large.

"We have 15 players left who are fit and of the 15 who were on at the end about six were playing in the wrong positions. I'm sorry to say that certain injuries look extremely serious so we're going to have to try and borrow some more players for the final," said Barbarians' manager Steve Boyle, listing at least five major injuries in his squad and citing a few lesser concerns.

"This was one of the toughest games I have ever seen. It was brutal and hard. There was no quarter asked and none given."

In a match that see-sawed one way and then the next at the National Sports Centre, the reigning Classic champions sped to an early 8-0 lead against the Kiwis, thanks to a penalty by Derek McAleese and a try by Simon Foale; the latter being among the night's first casualties with suspected ligament damage to his left knee that has ruled him out for Sunday.

Bruce Hemara put the All Blacks on the board with a try to make the score 8-5 and, on their very next attack, the New Zealanders went ahead compliments of a Vern Cotter try to hold a slender 10-8 advantage at the half.

Despite their bench looking more and more like an emergency room as the bruising encounter progressed, the Barbarians proved the dominant force in the second half. Again, McAleese scored an early penalty to regain the lead (11-10) for his team and, from there, they never relinquished it. Another penalty kick as well as a try and successful conversion added another ten points to their tally while the All Blacks mustered a last desperate try at the death. The latter's tradition of declining conversions proved costly as the extra six points they could have had would have put them level with the winners.

Noting that his players were being introduced to each other at the airport on Saturday morning as they prepared to fly over to Bermuda from the UK, Boyle reasoned that experience was responsible for their success thus far.

"We only have eight players from last year and we've just practised a few times. Thankfully, our players are of a quality that they can bring us through."

All Blacks captain Steve McDowell was also pleased with his team's effort though a losing one.

"We have a lot of young guys who never played in this tournament before so they were a bit unsure and we got caught on our back line a bit but overall I think we played well. We missed a few tries but it was a good game. The Barbarians are a strong side with a lot of top players."

He had no regrets about not taking conversion kicks which could well have altered the match's outcome, explaining that the All Blacks prefer to rely on their "skill factor".

Earlier in the evening, Bermuda went down 19-10 to Iberia in the plate semifinal. It was a much more heartening showing by the local players who were crushed 64-0 by the Barbarians last Sunday.

A first-half penalty by Andre Simons plus a second-half try by Greg Garside and follow-up conversion by Nathan Brown combined for the Bermudian score. David Deosdad, Albert Malo (captain) and Jose Pires earned tries for Iberia who also scored from two conversions.

Bermuda's coach Pete Shillingford was understandably much happier with his side last night.

"We didn't do ourselves justice on Sunday. We didn't play to our potential but we had a good training session last night (Tuesday night) and a good chat to sort out all the problems.

"I thought the boys played really well tonight and they can be proud of their performance. All our players put in 100 percent commitment and you can't ask for anything more.

"We could have snuck in at the end but a couple mistakes cost us the game," he said.