The Lions History - Part 1

The British Isles touring team, a.k.a the Lions.

Perhaps no other side in the history of rugby has evoked such memories, stirred such passion and notched up such success. It is for these reasons that the team has survived the maelstrom of professionalism and upheaval that has hit the sport in recent years, and although the players undoubtedly still retain such a desire to represent the famous side, big business has decreed that it shall survive, and indeed prosper, in the modern era.

1950-1989 | New Zealand 1993 | S. Africa 1997 | Australia 2001

The Beginnings

Do not be fooled into thinking that the team now known as the Lions has its origins in an era of commercial innocence.

Although it is safe to say the tours before the 1939-45 war were more comparable to a knees-up, sing-song and a friendly clubhouse drinking session than the ultra-competitive tours we see today, the first few tours of a 'British' team were in fact funded by private companies eager to exploit the then burgeoning markets of the British Empire.

The first trailblazer of overseas touring for a UK side was a British team, led by Bob Seddon, to Australia and New Zealand in 1888. Although he was to tragically die in a rowing accident whilst on tour, the team managed to play 35 games against varying provincial and club sides over a period of around six months.

The next tour, to South Africa in 1891, was the first tour to have a schedule that most closely resembles the modern age, establishing the principles of actually playing Test matches. A British side toured to South Africa again in 1896 (when it lost its first Test to a colonial side, 0-5 in Cape Town) and 1903, Australia in 1899 and Australia and New Zealand in 1904. An Anglo-Welsh side toured New Zealand and Australia in 1908 and two years later the last pre-World War One British team travelled to South Africa.

The tour was dominated by the legendary England flanker Cherry Pillman, whose career was to be curtailed by the war four years later, as the Great Britain side played 24 games in total, losing the Test series 1-2.

The outbreak of war in 1914 halted any further overseas tour by a British side for a decade and when they resumed, in 1924, it was the first time that the side received its now famous nickname, the 'Lions'. Although it was still officially called the British Isles Rugby Union Team, or BIRUT, well in to the 1950's, no-one can trace the exact source of the name adopted in the 1920s. It is widely assumed it is because the ties given to the 1924 team had lions embroidered on them.

It was not an auspicious start for the newly named side. Captained by England's Ronnie Cove-Smith, the side were plagued by injuries, withdrawals and the state of rugby at home, and struggled to compete, winning only nine out of the 21 games and failing to win any of the Tests.

A tour, not without its controversy, to New Zealand and Australia followed in 1930 captained by Leicester's Doug Prentice, and was notable for the Lions beating New Zealand in the 1st Test in Christchurch as well as the fact that New Zealand played in all-white during that game. That was because the Lions wore blue at that stage and there was not enough distinction between the two sides - it was this incident that influenced the change to the current red strip we see today.

In 1938 the third and final inter-war Lions tour took place to South Africa under the captaincy of Irish prop Sammy Walker. The Lions came up against the talented Springbok side that included the likes of Benny Osler, Danie Craven and Boy Louw and although they lost the first two Tests, they bounced back and won the third in Cape Town against the odds.

With the outbreak of war in September 1939, Lions tours were again put on hold but they would return, and return in a increasingly competitive and professional mood and style.

Era of the Lions 1950-1989 >>