CALL me cynical, but the decision to award caps for Wales’ game against the Barbarians at the Millennium Stadium on June 4 has to be for commercial reasons.

The game now is all about money – the governing bodies need it, the regions or provinces or clubs chase it and they all demand more and more of it.

International rugby is, therefore, the lifeblood of the game. Without it everyone struggles, with it anything is possible.

So don’t come out with a load of hogwash about the virtues of making Wales’ match against the Baa-baas a full blown international with caps awarded.

The match has been artificially created to celebrated the 130th anniversary of the Welsh Rugby Union. But why celebrate that figure? Why not the 129th last season or the 133rd in a few years? What’s so special about 130? A hundred for sure and maybe 150, but anything else lacks credibility.

It just happens to be a convenient peg to hang this particular match on. And the reason for awarding caps is also a way of upgrading the significance of the fixture and therefore make it more meaningful for the players and possibly more attractive to the fans, the very people the Union want to come through the gates in large numbers to make the most money out of the occasion they can.

And you can bet there will be two significant selections which will have their base more around commercial reality than individual merit, with respect to the players involved.

James Hook has already declared himself unavailable for the fixture because he’s getting married, but is there any real need to play Stephen Jones in this match?

Surely this is the time to give Rhys Priestland his first start after featuring on the bench during the Six Nations. This is exactly the type of fixture to blood him to get some idea what he’s made of and whether he could be worth a gamble for the World Cup later this year.

But you can bet your last few pence that Jones will start this one. Why would that be when we all know what he can do, when he’s seen it all before and when he hardly needs to play in this kind of celebratory fixture?

The answer is everything to do with the fact that it would be his 100th cap and another way of selling this particular match to the general public, the majority of whom have had their fill of rugby by now, and certainly will have by June.

And then there is Gavin Henson. One game back, albeit a successful one, for his latest club Toulon and the nation is supposed to be in raptures again.

A try and a major part in another against Stade Francais and the world is a better place to live in, we are asked to believe.

And if Henson doesn’t suffer another injury and provided he hasn’t moved on to somewhere else that might take his fancy by June, you can bet he will be in the Welsh team to face the Baa-baas as well.

It may well be that coach Warren Gatland wants to take a closer look at him to see whether he can make the World Cup squad with so few matches under his belt since his long absence from rugby whether that be because of his self imposed exile or down to injuries.

But don’t tell me such a selection wouldn’t be based on commercial reasons as well. If he gets selected Henson will be sold to the public as the Messiah returning, an angle that will be flogged blatantly to try to get more people through the gate for a fixture which is purely an exhibition. Caps are awarded cheaply enough as it is with a player who goes on for a minute at the end of a game given one when many predecessors have sweated blood never to receive the ultimate Welsh rugby honour.

And you can be sure a number of players will be given an opportunity when they have barely featured in the past.

The leading ones won’t be flogged through another game which has an international label but is hardly that. A match against the Barbarians is a throw-it-around jamboree, it’s about entertainment and it’s meant to be lighthearted.

It’s not a full blooded international, never has been, never will be.

So don’t give us all this nonsense about Wales playing the Barbarians in June to celebrate the almighty landmark of 130 years of WRU history being some kind of great occasion. The public are not that stupid – are they?