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1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand

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 worn 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

Results

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

  Test matches

New Zealand national team that played British Isles in Wellington
The Auckland side that defeated the Lions team on 20 August

Test details

Australia 1st Test

Australia 2nd Test

Australia 3rd Test

New Zealand

Notes
  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "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

External links

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