Australia 55 Barbarians 7
It's never easy to take much from games against scratch teams. The structure, if it is ever there, melts away pretty quickly and, as happened last night in Sydney, it gets scrappy very quickly.
Everyone kind of accepted that might be the case but let it slide as there were still enough sideshows to make the evening worthwhile.
There was, of course, the fascination of watching Sonny Bill Williams - not so long ago rated the most hated man in Australia - boning up against Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock. Talk about clash of the titans.
Two big men, hard men, locked in combat. Williams made the first strike in the early exchanges when he blasted on to a delayed Luke McAlister pass and brushed off Mortlock, who had been caught off balance.
The Barbarians should have scored as Williams, held up inches short, didn't control the ball, opting instead for a scrambled pass which only managed to throw the ball behind him, losing momentum, and Australia scrambled to safety.
From there on, however, in regard to the Mortlock-Williams duel, it was the Wallaby captain in control. The next time Williams took the ball - a cutout pass from McAlister, Mortlock buried him. He got shoulder firmly into the contact zone and Williams was thumped into the turf, although he bounced up, smiling.
Mortlock made a couple of telling breaks as well and also covered back to nail Williams after McAlister had broken free late in the first half.
What surprised about Williams was that he got the hard bits right and struggled with the bits everyone thought he had already mastered.
His defensive positioning was good and he covered his space well, although he'll have been disappointed to let Drew Mitchell beat him for pace on the outside.
His angles of attack were okay, never brilliant, but dangerous enough. The big surprise was that his ball retention was not all it should have been. He spilled a bit of pill when he was hit in the tackle.
The game was by no means only about Williams. The All Black coaches would have been scrutinising the form of McAlister, who is expected to be called up into the 30-man squad for the Tri Nations, if not before, as injury cover for Richard Kahui.
He had to shift to second five late in the first half after an injury to Seilala Mapasua which brought former Chief Glen Jackson off the bench.
That prevented the All Black selectors from seeing what McAlister could do in terms of tactical control and owning the game but, in a game of this nature, they were never going to get much of that anyway.
What they did see is that McAlister can still run and step with the best of them. He's a danger, as he always was, with the ball in hand and, in broken play, he's still got the goods. Judgement on whether he can be the No 10 cover they want him to be will have to wait until he's turned out for the Junior All Blacks.
And how could this game not have a festival feel? The Barbarians were full of big names, but McAlister, WIlliams and Chris Jack aside, most of them had seen better days.
Jerry Collins gave all he had, which wasn't as much as he used to have, and Paul Tito, he of the flame-red mop, plucked some handy lineout ball. Good old Justin Marshall made an appearance off the bench and showed he has lost none of his competitiveness but much of his agility and finesse.
There was little on which the Wallabies could be fairly judged. The Barbarians scrum had been thrown together, so too their lineout so the fact Australia were dominant there shouldn't be seen as significant.
Giteau scored a spectacular but ultimately simple try when he ran crossfield with a few decoys sent on the dummy scissors to fox the defence.
Better defences would have buried him.
Australia 55 (J. Horwill, M. Giteau, D. Mitchell (2), S. Moore, B. Alexander, B. Pocock, J. O'Connor tries; M. Giteau 4 cons, pen; S. Mortlock 2 con) Barbarians 7 (I. Balshaw try; L. McAlister con).