Once Were Lions: The Players’ Stories: Inside the World’s Most Famous Rugby Team

The statistics do not lie. The Lions went unbeaten through all 20 matches, notching 226 points for the loss of just 1, and that in the opening match against the Cape Town Club. It remains the most one-sided tour to date.

Captained by Bill Maclagan, who had played 26 times for Scotland, the visitors were just too big and strong, too skilful and experienced, for the willing but technically unsound South Africans. In only one match, on brick-hard ground in Kimberley against Griqualand West, did the visitors feel in any real danger, the Lions eventually winning 3–0, though Stellenbosch in the final match actually held the visitors to just 2–0.

A bigger problem for the tourists was the many days of backbreaking travel in horse-drawn vehicles between the various venues, as well as the generous hospitality of their hosts. Centre Paul Clauss described the tour as ‘champagne and travel’, and some fans would say that this succinct description of Lions tours has never been bettered.

Without a doubt, the tour transformed South African rugby, not least because of a gift made by a shipping magnate. The party had travelled on the Dunottar Castle of the Union Castle Line, and its owner donated a magnificent trophy to be presented to the province that performed best against the Lions. The tourists selected Griqualand West, who became the first proud owners of the cup competed for by the South African provinces to this day and named after the man who donated it, Sir Donald Currie.

More importantly, the South African rugby players took to heart all the lessons they had learned from the 1891 Lions. One of the Lions, the Rev. H. Marshall, wrote that the tourists had ‘initiated the colonists of South Africa into the fine points and science of the rugby game’. Maclagan and his men did their missionary work all too well, as subsequent touring parties would find to their cost.

The third tour was again to South Africa, which could be reached in 16 to 17 days by boat rather than the 6 weeks it took to sail to Australia or New Zealand. Well organized and funded by the various provincial unions across South Africa, the 1896 tour was memorable for several reasons—it featured a sizeable contingent from Ireland for the first time, it included the first defeat of the Lions in an international Test, and the whole exercise officially made a profit, showing that the Lions were by now welcome visitors wherever they went.

The touring party featured players only from English and Irish clubs and was missing those players from the northern English clubs who had ‘defected’ to rugby league on its formation in 1895. The choice of players for touring also reflected the massive infighting that had split the RFU from the SFU—the name Scottish Rugby Union was not adopted until 1924—and the Welsh Union over issues related to professionalism.

The squad was captained by Johnny Hammond of Blackheath and Cambridge University, who at 36 was the oldest Lions captain to date. Irish vice-captain Tom Crean, already an internationalist with nine caps, actually led the side on more occasions, age presumably having withered Hammond. Though we will learn more about his heroic nature, Crean, it should be said, must not be confused with his contemporary fellow Irishman of the same name, who accompanied both Scott of the Antarctic and Ernest Shackleton on their Polar expeditions. One of the Lions tourists, Cuthbert Mullins of Oxford University, was actually a native of South Africa, and he later went back home to practise as a doctor.

It is perhaps an insight into the inclusive nature of the Lions as representing all of Britain and Ireland that, on arrival in South Africa, the three Roman Catholics in the party—Crean, and Louis and Eddie Magee—wanted to attend Sunday mass rather than take part in an excursion. The management decreed that all religious people would be able to attend their various churches that morning and the excursion would start later. The Lions, it seemed, happily answered to a Higher Power.

That Power looked kindly on them. The Lions went undefeated through the tour until the final game. They had beaten South Africa in three Tests, and won against every provincial side except one, Western Province, which gained a 0–0 draw. They had scored 320 points for the loss of 45, yet such apparently one-sided statistics hid the fact that South African rugby had vastly improved.

In their final match in Cape Town, the Lions found out just how much the sport had moved on in South Africa. Wearing their famous green jerseys for the first time, South Africa were led by Barrie Heatlie, who rejoiced in the nickname ‘Fairy’—it is not known why. His side had developed their forward play to such an extent that the Lions buckled, and when the referee, Alf Richards, who just happened to be a former South African internationalist, ruled against the Lions’ favourite tactic of wheeling the scrummage, things began to look bad for the visitors.

South Africa then gained a controversial try, not least because the scorer, Alf Larard, had been reinstated as an amateur on immigrating to the country from England where he had been involved in the row over ‘broken time’ payments which had led to the establishment of rugby league the previous year. Also, by a strict interpretation of the rules, the ball had been won from an offside position before being passed to Larard for his try, which was converted.

The visitors mounted a late rally, but could not score. South Africa had beaten the Lions 5–0, and the victory caused a sensation across that country. The row over the debatable score rumbled on for days, and some would say has never stopped, as the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere nations still disagree over the laws of the game and their interpretations.

We are indebted to Walter Carey, one of the tour party, for an insider’s account of the 1896 tour. He would eventually make his home in South Africa as Bishop of Bloemfontein and is most famous for coining the motto of the Barbarians: ‘Rugby is a game for gentleman in any class, but no bad sportsman in any class.’

Carey wrote that the tour had been ‘very happy’ and praised the ‘scrupulously fair’ play of the host teams. He added: ‘I hope and pray that South African teams will always play like gentlemen.’ His missionary zeal is perhaps understandable, given that he did become a clergyman.

Carey also described the tour’s star player Tom Crean in glowing terms as ‘the most Irish, the most inconsequent, the most gallant, the most lovable personality one could ever imagine and made the centre of the whole tour’. Over the years the Lions have featured many such personalities, and a goodly number of them have been Irish.

Sadly, within a few years of that happy tour in 1896, South Africa was torn apart by the Boer War. It seems almost incredible that so soon after their tour as Lions, several of the 1896 touring party were back as combatants. Two of them, Tom Crean and Robert Johnston, both won the Victoria Cross for acts of gallantry in that conflict—it was not just on the rugby battlefield that Lions were heroic.

Crean in particular appears to have been practically born heroic. Blessed with good looks and a magnificent physique, Crean was what the Irish call a ‘broth of a boy’, who loved nothing better than good wine, good company of both sexes and plenty of singing. In short, an ideal Lions tourist. From Dublin, he had just qualified as a doctor in 1896 and he had already been decorated for heroism. At the age of 18, he received a Royal Humane Society award for saving the life of a 20-year-old student who had got into difficulties in the sea off Blackrock in Co. Dublin. He enjoyed South Africa so much he stayed on in Johannesburg and, in 1899, joined up as an ordinary trooper, seeing action at the Relief of Mafeking and being wounded in battle.

Serving as a surgeon captain in 1901, Crean won his VC for continuing to attend to the wounded under fire. Presented with the medal in 1902 by King Edward VII, his citation read:

Thomas Joseph Crean, Surgeon Captain, 1st Imperial Light Horse. During the action with De Wet at Tygerskloof on the 18th December 1901, this officer continued to attend to the wounded in the firing line under a heavy fire at only 150 yards range, after he himself had been wounded, and only desisted when he was hit a second time, and as it was first thought, mortally wounded.

As if that wasn’t enough, Crean went on to win the Distinguished Service Order and commanded the 44th Field Ambulance brigade which served in the trenches in the First World War. He was again wounded several times.

Sadly, his health failed as a result of his wartime injuries, and he began to drink heavily and developed diabetes. His private practice in London failed, and he was declared bankrupt shortly before his death in 1923, aged just 49. You will read in this book of how life after the Lions has often been an anti-climax for individual players, but that could not be said of war hero Crean.

It was said at one time that the two most famous men in South Africa were Cecil Rhodes and Tom Crean. Crean’s heroism as a player and in combat were not forgotten—in the third of their special Boer War centenary commemorative stamps issued by the South African Post Office in 2001, he was one of two people honoured with their own stamp.

Amazingly, the other Lion to win a VC, Robert Johnston, was a member of the same club as Crean, Wanderers. Born in Donegal, Johnston celebrated his 24th birthday on the Lions tour and he and Crean became fast friends. Indeed, they joined the Imperial Light Horse together, and served through various battles including Elandslaagte. It was there that Johnston won his VC. The citation read that at a critical moment when the advance was checked, Johnston ‘moved forward under heavy fire at point blank range to enable a decisive flanking movement to be carried out’.

After initial treatment to his wounds, Johnston was transferred to a field hospital where the doctor who treated him was none other than Tom Crean. His friend’s treatment proved successful, as Johnston made a full recovery and after serving as a prisoner of war camp commandant, he lived until 1950.

The unexpectedly long duration of the Boer War did not prevent a fourth tour taking place, though in 1899 the venue was Australia rather than South Africa. The squad was captained and managed by the Rev. Matthew Mullineux who had toured in 1896 and was then a member at Blackheath.

Reverend Mullineux was perhaps not the best player around, never receiving an England cap, but he was at least a modest realist. In the first Test against Australia in Sydney, he could not perform to the same level as those around him, and having seen his team soundly beaten by 13–3, Mullineux promptly dropped himself. England international Frank Stout took over as on-field captain for the remaining three Tests, all of which were won by the Lions to give them the first Test series victory in Australia.

The touring party featured representatives from all four home nations, but the star of the side was the sole Welsh international, Gwyn Nicholls of Cardiff, who brought a new dynamism to the position of centre. He ended the tour as top try scorer, with C.Y. Adamson of Durham gaining the most points thanks to his prodigious kicking. On a tour where the Lions won 18 of their 21 matches, scoring 333 points for the loss of 90, Adamson amassed 135 points by himself, a tour record that would stand for many years.

It might seem incredible to modern sensitivities, but just a year after the cessation of hostilities in the Boer War, a Lions squad toured South Africa. The war may have split South Africa asunder, but it wasn’t going to get in the way of the national passion for rugby. And just as the spectacular victory of South Africa in the 1995 World Cup did much to heal wounds in the post-apartheid era, so did the 1903 tour help the normalization process after the Boer War. It also helped that, for the first time, a host country defeated the Lions in a Test series.

Captained by Mark Morrison of Scotland, the 1903 Lions featured internationalists from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, but none from England. Led by Morrison, the forwards gave a good account of themselves, though South Africa’s scrummaging power was beginning to become a mighty weapon. In the backs, however, only Reg Skrimshire of Wales could match the South Africans, whose passing and kicking skills had vastly improved even in the short space of four years.

In the first Test in Johannesburg, South Africa were captained by Alex Frew, who had played alongside Morrison for Scotland in their Triple Crown-winning year of 1901. The Lions had suffered several reverses and injuries in the provincial matches before that first Test, and would go on to win just 11 of their 22 matches on tour. Both the first and second Tests were draws, which set the scene for a tense closing encounter in Cape Town.

Digging out the green jerseys which they had worn in their first victory over the Lions back in 1899, the South Africans were well prepared, but became nervous when a downpour turned the pitch into a quagmire—conditions which were thought to favour the players of Britain and Ireland. Thousands of spectators watched from beneath umbrellas as South Africa persevered with their game plan, which involved their much better backs. Though the Lions had a try disallowed and there was yet more controversy over the winning try by South Africa, which came off a suspiciously forward pass, at the end most people agreed that the home side had thoroughly deserved their 8–0 victory.

The green jerseys were there to stay on South African torsos and the Lions had suffered their first-ever series loss. It was not to be the last, but at least they had a swift opportunity to wipe the slate clean as the very next year saw a tour to Australia and New Zealand. The 1904 squad was again captained by a Scot, the remarkable David ‘Darkie’ Bedell-Sivright, a veteran of the 1903 tour and the only man from that squad to play again for the Lions the following year.

Bedell-Sivright was a swarthy individual, a fearsome forward, and a real character on and off the field—he was alleged to have rugby tackled a cart horse. He once stated: ‘When I go on to the rugby field I only see the ball, and should someone be in the road, that is his lookout.’ He was very popular with the Australians and he loved them and their country, staying on for a year after the tour before returning home to study medicine. He was not enamoured of Australian referees, however. In the match against Northern Districts, Denys Dobson of Oxford University was sent off by the local referee, one Hugh Dolan. His offence was to say ‘What the devil was that for?’—a near-blasphemy to Mr Dolan who ushered Dobson from the field, thus making him the first Lion ever to be sent off.

Bedell-Sivright intervened on behalf of his team member and the Lions left the field, returning after 20 minutes without Dobson but ready to thump the home side, which they did 17–3. In interviews after the match, the Lions captain explained his stance to reporters: ‘He [Bedell-Sivright] regarded Mr Dolan as an incompetent referee. The team had borne with his incapacity so long as it merely affected them in their play, but when he chose to take up a position which reflected on their personal honour, they thought it time to show their resentment.’

An inquiry was held by the New South Wales Rugby Union and no action was taken against Dobson for his ‘improper expression’. It was a whitewash by officialdom—and not the last time this would happen with the Lions.

Bedell-Sivright’s side featured internationalists from all four home countries as well as two New Zealanders, medical students Pat McEvedy and Arthur O’Brien. Paddy Bush of Cardiff, a brilliant fly-half, marshalled the outstanding Welsh backs of the time. The Lions duly swept all before them in Australia, winning every one of their 14 matches, including the 3 Tests by a combined score of 50–3.

It was a different story entirely in New Zealand, where the Lions cause was not helped by Bedell-Sivright breaking his leg in the first match at Canterbury. The low point of the tour was the only Test against New Zealand, in which the Lions suffered their first defeat by the nation who would come to haunt them in the decades ahead. It was a case of dominant home forwards beating inventive Lions backs, which would also be a regular occurrence in the history of the tourists. Captain Bedell-Sivright remarked patronizingly that the colonials would not dare to come to Britain: ‘you might succeed occasionally against local underdog teams…but would be out of your class against national combinations,’ he is reported to have said.

How wrong could he have been. In retrospect, that 9–3 victory was the beginning of the rise of New Zealand rugby which would reach full glory the following year with the 1905 tour to the ‘old countries’ and the start of the All Blacks legend.

Both the principals in that notorious sending off, Dobson and Bedell-Sivright, would meet strange ends. The former was killed by a charging rhinoceros in Africa in 1916, while Bedell-Sivright died from an infected insect bite during the Dardanelles campaign in the Great War.

After tours in successive years, the next Lions did not leave home shores again until 1908, when Arthur F. ‘Boxer’ Harding, a 1904 tourist, captained the squad on its visit to Australia and New Zealand. In one way this was the least representative squad to tour in the 20th century, as only players from England and Wales featured. Scotland had fallen out with the RFU over the issue of New Zealand paying three shillings a day in expenses to its players on their 1905 tour to Europe.

‘There can be no halfway house in rugby football’, wrote J.A. Smith, the secretary of the SFU.

The daily allowance made to the players is directly antagonistic to the true spirit of amateur Rugby football. The payment means that, in addition to every possible expense, including uniforms, laundry, entertainments, gratuities and medical attendance, each player has received at least one pound and one shilling a week for himself, and my committee consider that this payment is tantamount to professionalism in a very insidious form.

The Scots made it clear they would not play against New Zealand’s ‘professionals’, and when England sided with the All Blacks, the SFU broke off relations with the RFU. Ireland also withdrew its cooperation on the same grounds.

The 1908 Lions therefore played in jerseys made up of hoops of white and red, the traditional English and Welsh colours, and that is one of the reasons many books and commentators refer to this as the Anglo-Welsh tour. But they were billed as the British touring party, and the invitation and organization were done in the now customary manner, so Lions they were, though by all accounts there was not the usual atmosphere of friendliness in the camp.

Selecting from just two nations and taking unproven players was to prove a pivotal point in the history of the British and Irish Lions. For after they returned a well-beaten side, the Welsh Rugby Union complained about the selection of players being for reasons of social class rather than distinction on the field. Two years later, that complaint would be formalized.

Whatever the reason for their failings, it certainly seems to be the case that the squad was weak when you consider the 1908 side’s results. As well as two losses to provincial sides in Australia, they lost seven of their matches in New Zealand, including two of the three Tests against the All Blacks.

To be fair, in the middle Test of the three, the Lions were unlucky to get only a draw, but Harding’s men apparently enjoyed too much of the lavish hospitality of their hosts and greatly underperformed in the final deciding Test, in which the All Blacks ran riot, scoring 9 tries and 29 points in all against none by the tourists.

The 1908 Lions did not even go down fighting, but then there had been a strange atmosphere in the party ever since they had lost one of their best players in the middle of the tour. In the biggest scandal to engulf the early Lions, Frederick Stanley Jackson, a Cornish giant who played for Leicester, was alleged to have been a professional rugby league player called John Jones from Swansea. Jackson was a star player, a lethal goal kicker who had helped Cornwall to the county championship, which in turn gave them entry to the 1908 Olympic Games where the men from the Duchy won the silver medal, losing to Australasia, i.e. Australia and New Zealand combined.

An Olympic medallist and one of the best-known players in the sport of rugby union involved in a murky business—not surprisingly, the newspapers had a field day, and the RFU had to act. A terse telegram was sent to tour manager George Harnett: ‘Jackson is suspended. Return him forthwith.’