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Rugby Union

Regan will lead Barbarians

28/11/2007

Mark Regan will captain the Barbarians against South Africa at Twickenham despite orders from Bristol to return to training and play for them.

Premier Rugby, which represents the Guinness Premiership clubs, believes it had agreed with the Barbarians that none of their players would be selected for the fixture on Saturday.

Despite this both Regan and Sale Sharks prop Andrew Sheridan were named in the starting line up.

Sheridan has reluctantly agreed to rejoin Sale for their EDF Energy cup match against Leicester on Friday but Regan is determined to lead the Barbarians.

He said: "I was asked to captain the Barbarians and I consider it a massive honour to do that."

Mike Burton, a Barbarians committee member involved in assembling the squad, said that each of the cases was dealt with individually.

Burton added that although Regan is knowingly in breach of his contract with Bristol he expects the matter to be resolved after the game in an amicable fashion.

He said: "We don't want to be in conflict with anybody but we'll speak to Bristol next week and fight Mark's corner. In my experience of employment law this is a pretty minor offence."

Sheridan has recently signed a new contract with the Sharks which he believed allowed him to play against South Africa but the player has instead decided not to cause a conflict with his club.

A Barbarians spokesman confirmed: "We respect Sale's point of view and are not pursuing the finer detail of the contract we have with Andrew. We have accepted Andrew will not play for the Barbarians on Saturday."