1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand

British Lions to Australia
and New Zealand 1904
The British Isles team
Date 18 June – 31 August
Coach(es) Arthur O'Brien
Tour captain(s) Scotland David Bedell-Sivright
Test series winners (v Australia):
British Isles (0–3)
(v New Zealand):
 New Zealand (1–0)
Top test point scorer(s) Wales Percy Bush (20)

The 1904 British Isles tour to New Zealand and Australia was the sixth tour by a British Isles rugby union team and the third to New Zealand or Australia. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.

Led by Scotland captain David Bedell-Sivright and managed by Arthur O'Brien the tour included 19 matches, 14 in Australia and 5 in New Zealand. Four of the fixtures were test matches – three against Australia and one against the New Zealand All Blacks. The Lions won all three Australian tests but lost the All Blacks' game.

This was the first time that a British team played both Australia and New Zealand in the same tour. It was also the last series until 1989 in which Australian matches were the major component; in between the only Australian fixtures were those appended onto a longer New Zealand tour. The team's captain, Bedell-Sivright, a veteran of the 1903 tour of South Africa, was requested to lead the team by England's Rugby Football Union. Bedell-Sivright broke his leg in the opening match of the New Zealand leg of the tour and Teddy Morgan took over the captaincy.

The uniforms wore by the Lions remained the same than previous tours, blue used in thick hoops and the red and white in thin bands.[1]

Touring party

Various caricatures of rugby footballers, most prominent is a player standing proudly with one foot on a football; on the football is written "The World", and on the player's headgear "NZ" [New Zealand].
Caricature published in The New Zealand Free Lance following New Zealand's defeat of the British Isles in their Test match in Wellington. The caption for the illustration reads: "The Triumph of John Bull, Junior. Episodes of Fact and Fancy in the Struggle for Rugby Supremacy"
Team kit

Full-backs

Three-quarters

Half-backs

Forwards

Results

Complete list of matches played by the British Lions:[10][11][12]

     Test matches

The Auckland side that defeated the British Isleas team
Match Date Opponent Location Result Score
Match 1 18 June NSW Waratahs Sydney, Australia Won 27–0
Match 2 22 June Western District Combined Bathurst, Australia Won 21–6
Match 3 25 June NSW Waratahs Sydney, Australia Won 29–6
Match 4 29 June Metropolitan Union Sydney, Australia Won 19–6
Match 5 2 July  Australia Sydney, Australia Won 17–0
Match 6 6 July Northern Districts Newcastle, Australia Won 17–3
Match 7 9 July Queensland Reds Brisbane, Australia Won 24–5
Match 8 13 July Metropolitan Union Brisbane, Australia Won 17–3
Match 9 16 July Queensland Reds Brisbane, Australia Won 18–7
Match 10 20 July Toowoomba Toowoomba, Australia Won 12–3
Match 11 23 July  Australia Brisbane, Australia Won 17–3
Match 12 27 July New England Armidale, Australia Won 26–9
Match 13 30 July  Australia Sydney, Australia Won 16–0
Match 14 6 August Canterbury / West Coast RU Christchurch, New Zealand Won 5–3
Match 15 10 August Otago / Southland RU Dunedin, New Zealand Won 14–8
Match 16 13 August  New Zealand Wellington, New Zealand Lost 3–9
Match 17 17 August Taranaki / Wanganui / Manawatu RU New Plymouth, New Zealand Drew 0–0
Match 18 20 August Auckland RU Auckland, New Zealand Lost 0–13
Match 19 31 August NSW Waratahs Sydney, Australia Won 5–0
Summary[10]
Played in Matches Won Lost Drawn Points for Points against
Australia 14 14 0 0 265 51
New Zealand 5 2 2 1 22 33
Total 17 14 2 1 287 84

Test details

Australia 1st Test

2 July
Australia  0–17 United Kingdom British Isles
Try: Bush
Llewellyn
Con: Harding
O'Brien
drop: Bush
Sydney Cricket Ground
Attendance: 34,000
Referee: T.G. Pauling
Australia [note 1]
British Isles

Australia: Jack Verge, Charlie White, Jack Hindmarsh, Stan Wickham, Charlie Redwood, Lew Evans, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Eric Dore, Frank Nicholson (c), Billy Richards, Denis Lutge, Thomas Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh
British Isles: Christopher Stanger-Leathes, Willie Llewellyn, AB O'Brien, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan, P Bush, Frankie Hulme, Darkie Bedell-Sivright (c), DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

Australia 2nd Test

23 July
Australia  3–17 United Kingdom British Isles
Try: Burdon Try: Bush
Llewellyn
O'Brien
Goal: Bush
Exhibition Ground, Brisbane
Attendance: 15,000
Referee: W.H Beattie
Australia [note 1]
British Isles

Australia: Jack Verge, Stan Wickham (c), Phil Carmichael, Doug McLean, Snr., Charlie Redwood, John Manning, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Allen Oxlade, Voy Oxenham, Alex McKinnon, Denis Lutge, Puddin Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh
British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan(c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

Australia 3rd Test

30 July
Australia  0–16 United Kingdom British Isles
Try: Gabe
Llewellyn
Morgan
Swannell
Con: Bush
O'Brien
Sydney Cricket Ground
Attendance: 24,000
Referee: T.G Pauling

Australia: Charlie Redwood, Fred Nicholson, Frank Futter, Stan Wickham (c), Doug McLean, Snr., Lew Evans, Francis Finley, Jack Meibusch, Allen Oxlade, Billy Richards, Blue Dixon, Denis Lutge, Jim White, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh
British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan(c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Burnett Massey, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Boxer Harding

New Zealand

13 August
New Zealand  9–3 United Kingdom British Isles
Try: D McGregor (2)
Pen: Wallace		 Pen: Harding
Athletic Park, Wellington
Attendance: 20,000
Referee: F.T. Evans (Auckland, New Zealand)
New Zealand
British Isles

New Zealand: RW McGregor, Duncan McGregor, Eric Harper, ME Wood, Billy Wallace, Billy Stead (c), Patrick Harvey, Dave Gallaher, George Tyler, Paddy McMinn, WS Glenn, Tom Cross, BJ Fanning, George Nicholson, Charlie Seeling
British Isles: AB O'Brien, PF McEvedy, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan (c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, RJ Rogers, DH Trail, Denys Dobson, Sid Bevan, RW Edwards, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Arthur Harding

Notes
  1. 1 2 From 1899, Australia tended to use the colours of the state they were playing in, the Waratah's light blue in Sydney and the Queensland Reds' maroon in Brisbane.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Lions change their stripes on Lions website, 17 Apr 2005
  2. ↑ "Player archives – Chris Stanger-Leathes". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "Player archives – John Fisher". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "Player archives – John Sharland". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Player archives – Charlie Patterson". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Player archives – Reg Edwards". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Player archives – Burnett Massey". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Player archives – Ron Rogers". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  9. ↑ "Player archives – Stuart Saunders". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Past Tour Results: 1903–1904". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  11. ↑ British & Irish Lions results on Rugby Football History
  12. ↑ Early Lions: Squads and results (1888–1938) on BBC Sport, 18 May 2005
  13. ↑ Brief history of the quirky colours of the Wallaby jersey by Spiro Zavos on The Roar website, 25 Aug 2012

Further reading

  • Thomas, Clem; updated by Thomas, Greg (2005). The History of The British and Irish Lions. Mainstream Books. pp. 50–54. ISBN 1-84596-030-0.
  • "1904: Australia & New Zealand". British Lions Ltd. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  • "The Lions down under: 1904". British Lions Ltd. 21 December 2009. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
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