In keeping with Barbarians tradition, English lock Bob Wilkinson and Welsh flanker Tommy David were uncapped for their countries, while Llanelli RFC's Phil Bennett was the heir apparent to the now-retired Barry John at fly-half.

After the Barbarians failed to recover possession at their own ensuing lineout, New Zealand winger Bryan Williams kicked deep into Barbarian territory; Phil Bennett recovered possession near his goal line, and with nearly the entire length of the field between him and the New Zealand goal line, he started upfield, sidestepping past three tackles, as encouraged by coach Carwyn James immediately before the game.

Still deep in Barbarians territory, the ball then passed through four pairs of Barbarian hands (John Pullin, John Dawes, Tommy David and Derek Quinnell) before Gareth Edwards, slipping between two team-mates and seemingly intercepting the last pass, finished with a diving try in the left-hand corner, 22 seconds after Bennett picked up the ball.

[8] Commentary for the match was originally supposed to be provided by Bill McLaren; however, he was recovering from the flu, so Cliff Morgan had been called in on the day to replace him.

A few minutes later, only great covering defence from J. P. R. Williams stopped an almost certain try after Bruce Robertson had put a grubber kick through for his winger Grant Batty to chase.

New Zealand scrum-half Sid Going was then penalised for not putting the ball into a scrum straight 5 yards out from the Barbarians' line, killing the good momentum their forwards had built up in the preceding passages of play.

The Barbarians then enjoyed their own stretch of attacking chances, with Gibson pouncing on a New Zealand knock-on in midfield to set up a counter-attack that was only thwarted by a timely interception by Robertson.

David Duckham then almost got around New Zealand's defence on the right wing with his first touch of the ball all match, but Burgess produced an excellent covering tackle to cut out the danger.

A desperate clearing kick from Bennett and Quinnell winning two New Zealand lineouts in two minutes ensured that their four-point cushion was maintained, before Duckham, starting inside his own 25-yard line, evaded three All Black defenders with successive side-steps to release David, Fergus Slattery and Willie John McBride in succession, until New Zealand flanker Scown thwarted a certain try for Bevan with a last-ditch tackle.

Within minutes of this, however, the All Blacks were once again back on the offensive, with Batty evading Gibson and J. P. R. Williams on the left wing, but his chip-and-chase was thwarted by Bennett covering across to clear the danger.

After a clearing kick by Going, Duckham produced the second of his two first-half swashbuckling runs, this time beating five All Black defenders – including a dummy on Ian Hurst that even fooled the cameraman – setting up a superb move that ended with flanker Slattery throwing a one-handed, over-the-head American football-style pass to Dawes who scored a try in the corner, only for Slattery's pass to be adjudged as having gone forward.

The ball was spread wide to Bevan, who managed to shrug off tackles from Bryan Williams, Ian Hurst and Joe Karam to score a try in the left corner.

Peter Whiting then also knocked on after a promising attacking move set up by a burst upfield from Kirkpatrick, but Edwards was penalised for not putting the ball in straight at the ensuing scrum, giving Karam a much easier attempt at goal, which he made to cut the deficit to 17–3.

A missed penalty goal attempt by Bennett aside, New Zealand controlled much of the possession and territory for the next 15 minutes or so, but the Barbarian's stout defence and a few handling errors meant that the All Blacks couldn't capitalise.

Bennett slotted the conversion from the right touchline, receiving a cheer almost as loud as the one that greeted the try, to give the Barbarians a virtually unassailable 23–11 lead with only a few minutes to go.

The Barbarians too managed to launch a couple of their own attacks, with Bevan twice running out of defence brilliantly, the second of which ended when he chose to grubber-kick ahead, not noticing that J. P. R. Williams was free on his left shoulder who would have certainly scored were he to have passed.

Barbarians captain John Dawes was lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd, as was scrum-half Edwards in recognition of his remarkable try scored in the opening minutes of the match.