Morgan Mitchell stepped on to the field for the 100th time in a Barbarians jersey on Saturday, leading the team to a 50-22 win over Marist to open the season.
The 32-year-old prop is a Gore local, having come through the age grades and attended Gore High School.
Since then he has gone on to play over 80 games for the Southland Stags, trained with the Highlanders and has spent time playing in Japan and the United States’ Major League Rugby.
While in New Zealand, the Barbarians have given him the opportunity to play club rugby at a high level, while being able to remain true to his roots.
"That’s exactly what the Barbarians are set up for, young guys coming through and hopefully having a crack at playing NPC," Barbarians coach AJ Aitken said.
"If they're lucky enough to go on and play Super, or end up somewhere else in the world or playing professionally, or like [departed prop] Michael Sleeman going travelling and playing rugby, like how lucky is he?
"That’s stuff we all wish we'd done when we were younger, so I think it’s an awesome opportunity for guys."
Mitchell shapes as one of several key players for the Barbarians this year.
Harrison Morton and Tevita Matuku form a strong locking combination, while vice-captain Taylor Peterson is back to steer the team from first five.
Out wide, Vitali Roqica has had an impressive preseason on the left wing.
The Barbarians will also bring some international flavour to the competition.
French prop Alexis Billant and Welsh flanker Alexander Grey have joined the team.
Both additions were opportunistic for the Barbarians, but Aitken was thrilled to have them on board.
Grey has played sevens for the Welsh national team and was working on a farm in the region, with no intention of playing rugby.
"We managed to track him down," Aitken said.
"Once we found out he was out there and we learnt of his pedigree, we were like we need to get a hold of this guy.
"We had a conversation with him, he came to training and just slotted straight in."
Billant was even more opportunistic, having made the connection from a Facebook post.
"He put a post on the New Zealand Backpacking page on Facebook.
"We managed to see it, got a hold of him really quickly, got him down here and got him a place to stay and a bit of a job, and away we go.
"It’s just been Johnny on the spot with a couple of these guys."
