THE North Midlands President's XV put up spirited resistance before they were beaten 59-24 by a star-studded Crawshay's Welsh XV at Worcester's Sixways ground last night.

Crawshay's, the Welsh Barbarians, included six full internationals in Matthew Cardey, Rupert Moon, Kevin Ellis, Steve Ford, Wayne Proctor and Neil Boobyer, while North Midlands had Worcester's former Wales full-back Matthew Back and Italian hooker Andrea Moretti in their ranks.

They also had Sixways winger Nick Baxter who scored a try in each half, the first of which opened the scoring. The Crawshay's backs always looked dangerous and they contributed six of their nine tries, two of them from Pontypridd winger Karl Rees.

But North Midlands stuck to their task and were rewarded with late tries from Bromsgrove centre Dave Wilkinson and a last minute penalty try.

* Worcester flanker Cameron Mather will make his Barbarians debut tonight when he plays against a Northampton XV at Franklin Gardens. Mather, aged 28, joined Worcester from Edinburgh Reivers in September.