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 |
W.E (Bill) Maclagan | 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | ||
1896 | Johnny Hammond | 21 | 19 | 1 | 1 | |
1903 | Mark Morrisson | 22 | 11 | 3 | 8 | |
1910 | Dr. T Smyth | 24 | 13 | 3 | 8 | |
1924 | Dr. Ronald Cove-Smith | 21 | 9 | 3 | 9 | |
1938 | Sam Walker | 23 | 17 | 0 | 6 | |
1955 | R.H. Thompson | 24 | 18 | 1 | 5 | |
1962 | Arthur Smith | 24 | 15 | 4 | 5 | |
1968 | Tom Kiernan | 20 | 15 | 1 | 4 | |
Willie-John McBride | 22 | 21 | 1 | 0 | ||
1980 | Bill Beaumont | 18 | 15 | 0 | 3 | |
1997 | Martin Johnston | 13 | 11 | 0 | 2 | |
2009 | Paul O’Connel | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | |