The history of the British (and for the past few decades the British and Irish) Lions is, to say the least, a little patchy. Whilst tours to Australia and Argentina have generally been successful, those to New Zealand and South Africa have been anything but. In 14 tours to South Africa there have been only four series wins (and two of these were in the 19th century) and our record is even worse in New Zealand with only one win in 12 attempts.
As such, there are probably more bad moments than great moments, but fortunately many have been consigned to history. I’ve picked out just six of these, which if they do nothing else will remind us all that winning on these tours is not easy and should be celebrated however it comes.
6. The worst tour ever? – South Africa 1924
Not much is written about the 1924 British Isles tour to South Africa, but results would suggest that it was one of the least successful Lions tours. Not only was the test series lost 0-3 plus one game drawn, but six other defeats were experienced on the tour to leave the team with a record of won nine, lost nine, drawn three.
There were several reasons put forward for the relatively poor performance. The British game was still weakened by the loss of so many young men after the First World War, and some of the better players may have been unavailable due to work commitments (the game was still resolutely amateur). Those that did go were unused to the hard, dry pitches in South Africa and injuries were rife. Home town refereeing may also have played a part. Most of the test matches were actually pretty close, but the South Africans came out on top in three and held on for a draw in the other.
The tour was difficult, but does have the distinction of being the first in which the ‘Lions’ name was used (due to the heraldic lion in the badge) although it was not officially adopted until 1950. The team was captained by Ronald Cove-Smith of England. He will perhaps have enjoyed his England career more than his Lions career. He played in both the 1923 and 1924 Grand Slams before captaining his country to another in 1928. Cove-Smith was clearly a very good player and is almost certainly the only player in history to be described as a ‘rampaging Mephistopheles’ as he was by journalist Denzil Batchelor. These were different times in more ways than one.
5. The interception – Second Test vs Australia, Melbourne 2001
Jonny Wilkinson was a teenage phenomenon, prodigious enough to make his full England debut aged only 18. Two months on and he was chosen for his first overseas tour. He may well have wished it had come a little later. On what became known as ‘The Tour of Hell’ Jonny made his overseas test debut in a crushing 0-76 defeat to Australia at Brisbane before playing in another crushing defeat to the All Blacks. His first experience of the Southern hemisphere was brutal.
If Wilkinson did have any scar tissue, he did not show it in the early stages of the 2001 Lions tour. He returned to the scene of the crime, Brisbane, for the first test and was an integral part of a superb 29-13 victory, embellished by a brilliant debut try for Jason Robinson.
The second test looked like going the same way when two Wilkinson penalties and a Neil Back try saw the Lions into an 11-6 half time lead. The test, however, turned in the opening seconds of the second half. Receiving the ball from a scrum in his own half, Wilkinson sent a long, speculative pass towards Irish centre Rob Henderson. Aussie winger Joe Roff, anticipating, intercepted the pass then was able to beat the covering defence for a try. Interception tries in tight games can often change momentum and nowhere was it more true than here. The Lions seemed to droop, and Australia scored two more tries plus a handful of penalties to run away with the game.
Although the third test was closer, Australia finished on top to win the series. Wilkinson’s error obviously was not the sole reason, but it was a significant turning point in a critical game. Wilkinson, of course, made amends (for England at least) in Australia in 2003, but never actually played in a series-winning Lions team.
4. The ‘abject surrender’ – Fourth Test vs New Zealand, Auckland 1983
The early 1980s was not a golden period for home nations rugby. The great Wales side of the 1970s had largely broken up, England had failed to build on their unexpected Grand Slam of 1980, and neither Scotland nor Ireland were dominant forces. In what were tough economic times, British and Irish rugby union had seemingly slipped into its own recession. 1983 was therefore not the best time for a Lions team to take on a tour to the stronghold that is New Zealand.
Alarm bells were tinkled when the Lions lost 13-12 in only their second warm-up match, to strong provincial side Auckland. The ringing increased with defeat in the first test (12-16) then a shutout (0-9) in the second. When the third test was lost 15-8, despite scoring two tries to one, the series was lost and the Lions were now just playing for pride. Captain Ciaran Fitzgerald reflected this in his comments before the fourth and final test… “Individual pride and self respect for our rugby can win this test.” His optimism was misplaced.
Played at Eden Park, Auckland, the fourth test was lost by the crushing margin of 38-6. The All Blacks, who had in truth found tries a little hard to come by in the first three tests (only one scored in each), managed to locate their scoring boots and ran in six. Wing Stu Wilson scored a hat-trick which was added to by a trio of ‘H’s – Hobbs, Hewson and Haden. A Lions squad lacking in quality in forwards and backs alike was steamrollered.
It remains the worst Lions defeat ever, and the team came home to talk as ‘the worst Lions ever’. That was somewhat unfair given the quality of the All Blacks, but this 0-4 whitewash was certainly a low point in recent Lions history.
https://that1980ssportsblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/1983-new-zealand-v-lions-fourth-test.html
3. Rog’s error of judgement – Second Test vs South Africa, Pretoria 2009
Ronan O’Gara (or Rog pronounced ‘Roj’ to his pals) has proven throughout his career as a player, coach and, latterly, TV pundit that he has the very highest level of RI or ‘rugby intelligence’. Sadly, he temporarily mislaid this to damaging effect in the closing stages of the Second Test against the Springboks in 2009.
The Lions had narrowly and controversially lost the first test. They had come back strongly from a 26-7 deficit to get within one score of a win, but were twice denied match-winning tries by the TMO in the last 10 minutes.
The second test was another tight affair, with the Lions leading for almost all of the game. With an hour of the match gone, they held a convincing lead of 19-8. The lead was narrowed by a Bryan Habana try then, with minutes left on the clock, Springbok centre Jaque Fourie crossed the line to put his team in front for the first time in the match. It looked all over for the Lions but a Stephen Jones penalty levelled the scores with almost no time left for a decisive score. With the clock running down, and the scores tied at 25 points each, the Lions were still in the series.
Enter Ronan O’Gara. O’Gara had come on as a replacement and had taken a knock to the head early on. He had been at fault for the Fourie try, perhaps suffering from his head injury in failing to make a tackle, but remained on the pitch. With thirty seconds remaining he collected a stray ball in the Lions 22. With coaches and commentators all calling for him to punt the ball as far as possible off the pitch he inexplicably opted for an up-and-under. As the high ball was caught by the South African number eight, O’Gara, chasing hard, collided with him, upending him while he was still in the air. The referee instantly and correctly gave a penalty to the Springboks. There was still a lot for Morne Steyn to do, but he landed the kick from inside his own half to give his side a match and a series win.
To be fair to O’Gara, had it not been for a refereeing error, the Lions might have run away with the match before his fateful error. In the first minute of the game, Springbok flanker Schalk Burger was yellow carded for a suspected eye gouge. On any other day of the week this would have earned him a straight red card (in fact he was suspended for eight weeks on review) but French referee Christophe Berdos thought otherwise. C’est la vie.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/jun/27/lions-south-africa-penalty-loss
2. The tour that never really was – South Africa 2021
There is no sporting event that is better without spectators. Whether they’re cheering you on or booing your every move, loud and raucous or eerily quiet, enjoying it or hating every minute, the crowd makes the atmosphere and the atmosphere makes it real. So, sport under COVID-19 was sport but not as we know it. Without fans in the stadium, everything felt a little flat, even (or especially) when crowd noise was artificially piped in.
The 2021 Lions tour to South Africa had been much anticipated, but the pandemic put it under threat of relocation, postponement or even cancellation. In the event, it was played in South Africa as planned, but with no spectators present. Not only would the noisy and one-eyed Springbok support be absent, but there would also be none of the 10s of 1000s of travelling Lions fans.
The tour started with disturbing echoes of 2005, when captain Alun Wyn Jones was forced out with a dislocated shoulder (the same injury suffered by skipper Brian O’Driscoll in 2005) in the warm-up match against Japan. Unlike that tour, however, the Lions, after four excellent wins and one defeat (to South Africa A) in the provincial games, managed to win the first test in Cape Town.
This, though, was to be the high point for the Lions on the tour. The South Africans recovered to take a convincing victory in the second test, before narrowly edging the final test with a penalty kick in the 79th minute. The Springboks, midway between two Rugby World Cup victories, could lay claim to being the best rugby side in the world, but they were a long way from being the most entertaining or likeable. Their victories were built on a powerful set of forwards (in fact two powerful sets of forwards) and an attritional style in which they relentlessly ground down the opposition. To be fair, that is mainly sour grapes… the real problem with this tour was the lack of atmosphere. Defeat felt a little less real and important without the crowds, perhaps victory would also have tasted a little hollow.
1. The spear tackle – First Test vs New Zealand, Christchurch 2005
A tour to New Zealand is tough at the best of times, in fact there’s only been one Lions series victory – on the epic tour of 1971. If there was to be a glimmer of a chance for the tourists, though, perhaps it might have come in 2005. England had won the World Cup two years earlier and their players made up the bulk of the Lions squad. Meanwhile the All Blacks’ sheen of invincibility had been tarnished slightly with away defeats to both Australia and South Africa in 2004. The All Blacks were, of course, still an outstandingly good side and were extremely hard to beat on home soil.
The Lions tour was led by World-Cup-winning England coach Clive Woodward. For someone who had got so much right with England, he made a number of missteps with the Lions. His squad selection seemed overly biased towards England, a team that in some decline since 2003; he ended the practice of players rooming together, something that had fostered great team bonding in the past; he allowed a them-and-us attitude to develop between the midweek and weekend teams; and he brought along a massive back-up team, including spin doctor Alastair Campbell, that seemed over the top and unnecessary.
A disappointing, error-strewn draw against Argentina in the warm-up game was a worrying sign of things to come. The Lions managed to win their first two games on tour – albeit at the cost of losing Lawrence Dallaglio to injury – but then suffered an unexpected loss to the New Zealand Maori. Three tough and relatively unconvincing wins later and they arrived in Christchurch to face the All Blacks in the first test.
The series was arguably lost within the first two minutes. The player chosen to captain the 2005 Lions team was talismanic Irish centre, Brian O’Driscoll, probably the best player in the home nations at the time. The All Blacks clearly saw him as a threat, and set out to neutralise him as early as possible. Less than one minute into the game the Irishman made a tackle on the halfway line and helped to form a ruck over the ball. He was then targeted by All Black centre Tana Umaga and hooker Kevan Mealamu, both of who grabbed a leg of O’Driscoll before lifting him up and dumping him headfirst on the ground. O’Driscoll was fortunate not to break his neck, but still found himself in agonising pain with a badly dislocated shoulder. He was to play no further part in the tour, in fact he did not play again at all for five months.
Alarmingly, neither Umaga nor Mealamu were penalised for the offence. Had it taken place in recent years, both would have received immediate red cards and long suspensions.
The Lions did not recover from the loss of their captain and best player, and crashed to a 21-3 defeat, the first leg of a depressing 0-3 whitewash in the series. Perhaps they would still have lost with O’Driscoll, but it would certainly have been closer … and fairer, had he not been so brutally and illegally forced out of it.