The Lions began their touring tradition way back in 1888 when captain Robert Seddon led a party of 22 for a tour of Australia and New Zealand that was almost 250 days long.
Good things come to those who wait
After a 46-day voyage — a travelling party of 22, skippered by Robert Seddon, arrived in Port Chalmers for a 249-day tour of New Zealand and Australia all the way back in 1888.
The first British and Irish Lions tour was the brainchild of former England cricketers Alfred Shaw — who famously bowled the first ever ball in Test cricket, Arthur Shrewsbury and James Lillywhite.
England provided the majority of the touring squad, while there was a Welshman in Richie Thomas, Scots Robert and William Burnet and Alex Laing and an Irishman in Belfast-born Arthur Paul.
The historic first Lions clash took place in Otago, which Seddon’s men won, with 10,000 spectators watching the clash.
Not yet synonymous with the famous red jersey, the Lions were clad in red, white and blue but it was Otago who took an early 3-0 lead with a drop goal.
The Lions fought back with two tries of their own, worth only a single point each, before Harry Speakman’s two drop goals turned the tide in the visitors favour and they won 8-3.
The New Zealand Herald called it “the fastest and hardest fought game ever seen in Otago” but the mutual respect between the teams was clear from the off.
And in no better way was this demonstrated than by the banquet and after-dinner speeches which followed — the celebrations continuing long into the night, setting the tone for a wildly successful inaugural tour.
The players were “heartily congratulated on their victory by friends and foes alike, no-one grudged them their hard-earned laurels after having come 16,000 miles over the ocean to play in New Zealand,” commented a piece in the Otago Witness at the time.
As the tour moved to Australia, the extraordinary feature was that 18 further games were played under Victorian or Australian Rules — the financial rewards on offer were a factor in the fixtures.
Overall it proved to be a fantastically successful tour — the 1888 team played 35 games of rugby in New Zealand and Australia, winning 27, drawing six and losing only two.
However, the 1888 tour was tinged with tragedy, when skipper Seddon, who had won three caps for England in 1887, drowned in Australia after a sculling accident on the Hunter River in New South Wales.
1891 – The first Test series
The British tourists who headed south across the equator in 1891 were the first to be officially sanctioned by the Rugby Football Union and the first ever international Test Series was a real success.
Shaw and Shrewsbury’s 1888 Australian adventure had been unsanctioned by the rugby authorities and funded mainly by novelty Aussie Rules matches.
Three years later, though, the game’s governors had fully embraced the concept of the overseas tour.
The touring party was invited to South Africa by the Western Province union and with all costs underwritten by the Cape Colony prime minister, Cecil Rhodes.
The RFU’s backing led to the 21-man party being billed as the English Rugby Football Team, although the fact it contained four Scots, including captain and wing Bill Maclagan, saw it given the British Isles tag retrospectively.
Just eight of the 21 tourists had been capped at international level prior to leaving British shores and slightly more than half were Oxford or Cambridge Blues.
Maclagan’s men, managed by former RFU secretary Edwin Ash, played 20 matches including Tests for the first time.
South African rugby may not have been quite on par with that of the Home Unions yet; future British tourists would find they were quick to catch up.
Despite this, the visitors saw off all-comers, scoring 224 points to one.
Aston is too quick for the Boks
The star of the tour was England centre Randolph Littleton Aston, who used his 6’3 height and 15-stone bulk — as well as an impressive turn of speed — to power his way over the try line 30 times in all.
The first ever Test match, in front of a reported 6, 000-strong crowd, took place at the Port Elizabeth Cricket Ground and was won 4-0 with Aston scoring the first try credited to a British/Irish touring team.
The second Test was played at the Eclectic Cricket Ground in Kimberley with the only points were scored by English full-back William Mitchell with a goal from a mark, kicked from near the halfway line.
The tourist completed their whitewash in the third and final Test 4-0.
