Rugby team profile: British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions are a rugby union touring team, comprised of the best players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. They usually tour every four years, with the destination country usually being one of the southern hemisphere world rugby powers.

The Lions have a long and proud history. Indeed, the first tour was as far back as 1888 to Australia and New Zealand. That must have been a long boat trip! The 1910 tour to South Africa was the first time that all four of the Home Nations’ rugby bodies were involved in the choice of players and can be seen as the beginning of the Lions as an established formal entity.

Over time the format of the Lions’ tours has evolved so that the tours tend to include warm up games against the host nation’s top provinces or club teams, followed by test matches against the host country. Since 1989’s tour to Australia the norm has been for 3 test matches to be played and the aim is to win’ the tour by winning at least two of those three test matches.

The joy of the Lions as an enduring sporting phenomenon, though, is that it’s not just about winning. It’s a rare chance for the best players from the British Isles to come together, put aside usual national rivalries and combine to produce exciting rugby.

Players still see it as a great honour to be selected for these tours and life-long friendships are forged. In an era where professionalism (and winning at all costs) have become so entrenched in sport, the Lions tours are a breath of fresh air. I think the closest comparison, in other sports, is with golf’s Ryder cup.

In recent years, the Lions have enjoyed victorious tours in Australia (1989) and in South Africa (1997). However, they’ve also been beaten twice in New Zealand (1993 and 2005) and also in Australia (2001). The 2005 tour was particularly sobering as they were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by New Zealand’s All Blacks and there were accusations that all was not well within the camp. It is to be hoped that the 2009 tour to South Africa will be more cohesive and more successful. However, the most important thing is that the British and Irish Lions tours remain an important part of the rugby calendar. Maybe by 2013 it may be time for another Lions tour to emerging rugby force, Argentina. The last Lions match there was away back in 1936!