British & Irish Lions Rugby Tours

History

1970 - 1979

The 1970s saw a renaissance for the Lions. The 1971 team, centred around the skilled Welsh half-back pairing of Gareth Edwards and Barry John, secured a series win over the All Blacks.

The tour started with a loss to Queensland but proceeded to storm through the next provincinal fixtures, winning 11 games in a row.

The Lions then went on to defeat the All Blacks in Dunedin.

The Lions would only lose a single match on the rest of the tour, and won the test series against New Zealand, winning and drawing the last two games, to take the series two wins to one.

Arguably the best-known and most successful Lions team toured South Africa in 1974 under the esteemed Irish forward Willie John McBride.

It went through 22 games unbeaten, and triumphed 3-0 (with one drawn) in the test series.

The test series featured a lot of violence. The management of the Lions concluded that the Springboks dominated their opponents with physical aggression.

At that time test-match referees came from the home nation, substitutions took place only if a doctor found a player unable to continue and there were no video cameras or sideline officials to prevent violent play.

The Lions decided "to get their retaliation in first" with the infamous "99 call" ("99" representing a shortening of "999", the phone number in Britain and Ireland for emergency services such as the police, ambulance or fire brigade).

The Lions postulated that a South African referee would probably not send off all of the Lions if they all retaliated against "blatant thuggery".

Famous video footage of the 'battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium' shows JPR Williams running over half of the pitch and launching himself at van Heerden after such a call.

The 1977 tour to New Zealand saw the Lions drop only one non-test out of 21 games, a loss to a Universities side.

The team did not win the test series though, winning one game but losing the other three.