British & Irish Lions Rugby Tours

History

The British and Irish Lions (until 2001 known as the British Isles or British Lions) is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Lions selectors can pick uncapped players available to one of the four home unions, but in recent[update] years this has rarely occurred.

Combined rugby union sides from the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland toured in the Southern Hemisphere from 1888 onwards.

The first tour took place as a commercial venture, made without official backing, but the six subsequent visits that took place prior to the 1910 South Africa tour (the first selected by a committee from the four Home Unions) enjoyed a growing degree of support from the authorities, although only one of these included representatives of all four nations.

Great Britain teams competed at the rugby union competitions in the Olympics in 1900 and in 1908, but this did not form part of the Lions tradition.

The 1950s proved a golden age for Lions rugby, although only in the 1970s did style begin to match the substance of victory in New Zealand and South Africa.

Originally, poorly-organised Lions teams regularly suffered defeat at the hands of their hosts, but by 1955 the tourists took the matches seriously enough to obtain a 2-2 draw in South Africa.

The 1970s saw a renaissance for the side. The last tour of the amateur age took place in 1993.

Three tours have happened since.

Naming and symbols

The team historically used the name British Isles before the use of the term "British" became increasingly controversial.

On their 1950 tour of New Zealand and Australia they also adopted the nickname British Lions after the lion emblem on their jerseys.

Since the 2001 tour of Australia they have used the name British and Irish Lions.

The team adopted this latest name to take account of the fact that the Republic of Ireland has not formed a part of the UK since 1922; in addition nationalists in most parts of Ireland object to any implication of "Britishness".

Most rugby-union fans simply refer to the team as the Lions.

As the Lions do not represent a single nation-state, they do not have a national anthem.

For the 2005 tour to New Zealand the Lions management specially commissioned a song, "The Power of Four", although it met with little support amongst Lions fans at the matches, and even the players seemed not to know the words.

The status of the song on future tours remains uncertain.

The Lions' badge is made up of the symbols of the four Home Unions.

The Lions first wore their traditional colours on the 1930 tour: red jerseys, white shorts, blue socks and green stocking-tops, to represent each of the four represented Unions (Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland respectively).

1888 - 1909 -HERE
1910 - 1949 - HERE
1950 - 1969 - HERE
1970 - 1979 - HERE
1980 - To Date - HERE