The McLook rugby collection

Lion Tours to South Africa

Britain and Ireland have been sending combined teams overseas for over one hundred years. The first combined side visited Australia in 1888 and in 1981 a team captained by Bill Maclagan toured to South Africa. It was on that tour that the combined team who in later years would become the British and Irish lions played their first test series.

The Table below provides a overview of all tours to South Africa. The last collumn on the right (series outcome) is linked to wikipedia articles of the respective tours. The first collumn on the left (dates) will be linked to articles on this website.

British and Irish Lion tours to South Africa
Date	Captain	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Series outcome
1891	W.E (Bill) Maclagan	16	16	0	0	3-0
1896	Johnny Hammond	21	19	1	1	3-1
1903	Mark Morrisson	22	11	3	8	0-1
1910	Dr. T Smyth	24	13	3	8	1-2
1924	Dr. Ronald Cove-Smith	21	9	3	9	0-3
1938	Sam Walker	23	17	0	6	1-2
1955	R.H. Thompson	24	18	1	5	2-2
1962	Arthur Smith	24	15	4	5	0-3
1968	Tom Kiernan	20	15	1	4	0-3
1974	Willie-John McBride	22	21	1	0	3-0
1980	Bill Beaumont	18	15	0	3	1-3
1997	Martin Johnston	13	11	0	2	2-1
2009	Paul O’Connel	9	6	1	2	1-2