British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions (formerly the British Lions 1) are a Rugby Union side comprising the pick of the best players from the four home unions, i.e. England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Lions are exclusively a touring team, and play the traditionally strong southern hemisphere nations of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
Originally, poorly organised Lions teams received regular thrashings by their hosts, but by 1955 the tourists were taking the matches seriously enough to obtain a 2-2 draw in South Africa. If the 1960s were forgettable for the Lions, the 1970s saw a renaissance. The 1971 team, centred around the great Welsh half-back pairing of Gareth Edwards and Barry John, secured a series win over the All Blacks.
Perhaps the best known, and undoubtedly the most successful, Lions team was that which toured South Africa in 1974 under the great Irish forward Willie John McBride, which went 21 games unbeaten and triumphed 3-0. The test series was beset by violence. The management of the Lions concluded that the Springboks dominated their opponents with physical aggression. At that time, in test matches the referee was from the home nation, there were only substitutions if a doctor agreed that a player was physically unable to continue and there were no video cameras and sideline officials keep the punching, kicking, and head butting to a minimum. The Lions decided "to get their retaliation in first" with the infamous 99 call. The idea being that a South African referee could hadly send off all the Lions if they all retaliated against "blatant thuggery". At the battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium, one of the most violent in rugby history, there is classic vidio footage of (Mr(Dr)) J P R Williams running over half the pitch and launched himself at van Heerdento after such a call.
Other tours include Test series wins over Australia in 1989 and South Africa in 1997, and defeats by New Zealand in 1977 and 1983, South Africa in 1986, and Australia in 2001.
Postwar tours and captains
- 1950 New Zealand and Australia (Karl Mullen)
- 1955 South Africa (Robin Thompson)
- 1959 New Zealand and Australia (Ronnie Dawson)
- 1962 South Africa (Arthur Smith)
- 1966 New Zealand and Australia (Mike Campbell-Lamerton)
- 1968 South Africa (Tom Kiernan)
- 1971 New Zealand (John Dawes)
- 1974 South Africa (Willie John McBride)
- 1977 New Zealand (Phil Bennett)
- 1980 South Africa (Bill Beaumont)
- 1983 New Zealand (Ciaran Fitzgerald)
- 1989 Australia (Finlay Calder)
- 1993 New Zealand (Gavin Hastings)
- 1997 South Africa (Martin Johnson)
- 2001 Australia (Martin Johnson)
- 2005 New Zealand (captain TBD)
Footnotes
1 The side was originally known as the "British Isles". On the 1950 tour of Australia they adopted the name the "British Lions" after the lion emblem on their jerseys. Since the 2001 tour they have been known as the "British and Irish Lions" out of respect for the players from the Republic of Ireland. They are often called simply the "Lions".
See also
