The 1924 British Isles tour to South Africa was the tenth tour by a

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

team and the fifth to South Africa. The tour is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950. As well as South Africa, the tour included a game in Salisbury in Rhodesia, in what would become present day

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

in Zimbabwe.

Tour history

Led by 's Ronald Cove-Smith and managed by former international

Harry Packer Harry Packer (9 September 1868 – 25 May 1946) was an English-born international rugby union prop who played club rugby for Newport and was capped seven times for Wales. Packer had a long association with rugby, as a player, selector, officia ...

, the tour took in 21 matches. Of the 21 games, 17 were against club or invitational teams and four were Test matches against the South African national team. The British Isles lost three and drew one of the Test matches making it one of the least successful Lions tours to South Africa – the

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...

and

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

tourists also lost their Test series three matches to nil with one draw. The tourist also suffered badly in the non-Test games losing six and drawing one, including a run where they failed to win over an eight-match period. Several reasons have been put forward regarding the poor performance of the British Isles. The team itself was fairly unrepresentative of the best the home nations could have supplied, during a period where British rugby wasn't in its finest phase. The team also suffered from a heavy attrition rate to injury attributed to the very dry South African playing pitches; conditions that once suited British back play, and were so short of players during some periods the team was forced to use players in foreign positions. On their return at least two of the players on the tour,

Roy Kinnear Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was a British character actor. He was known for his roles in films such as The Beatles' ''Help!'' (1965), Clapper in '' How I Won the War'' (1967) and Planchet in ''The Three Musketeer ...

and Thomas Holliday went on to become dual code rugby internationals after they switched to

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

. The match against Orange Free State Country was a peculiar match with the home team being much weaker. Fortune shone upon the home team though, when they won the toss and decided to play with a howling wind on their backs. Half time, the wind died down and proceeded to blow with the same vengeance in the opposite direction. This advantage was enough to ensure a 6–0 win for the home side.

Touring party

* Manager:

Full Backs

* D Drysdale ( Heriots FP and ) *W.F. Gaisford ( St. Bart's Hospital) * T.E. Holliday ( Aspatria)

Three-Quarters

Rowe Harding W. Rowe Harding (10 September 1901 – 10 February 1991) was a Welsh international rugby union wing who played club rugby for Swansea. An intelligent player, Harding played for several teams at club and international level. In 1926 he attended ...

( Swansea) *

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

(

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

and ) * Stanley "Stan" Wakefield Harris (

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) * William "Bill" Wallace ( Percy Park) *

( Heriots FP and ) *J.H. Bordass (

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) * Reginald "Reg" Bellamy Maxwell (

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)

Half backs

* Harold Davies ( Newport) *

Vince Griffiths Vince Griffiths (29 May 1901 – 7 January 1967) was a Welsh rugby union player who represented Wales and the British Lions. Griffiths played club rugby for Newport and captained the team in the 1928/29 season. Griffiths gained his first cap f ...

( Newport) * Herbert Waddell (

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and ) *

Bill Cunningham Bill Cunningham may refer to: People *Bill Cunningham (rugby union) (1874–1927), New Zealand rugby union player * Bill Cunningham (footballer), Irish international footballer active in the 1890s *Bill Cunningham (infielder) (1886–1946), profe ...

(

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) * Arthur Young (

) * Herbert Whitley ( Northern)

Forwards

* R. Cove-Smith ( Old Merchant Taylors) ''(captain)'' * Arthur Frederick "Freddie" Blakiston (

) * A. Thomas "Tom" Voyce (

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) * Neil McPherson ( Newport) *R.G. Henderson ( Northern and ) * K.G.P. Hendrie ( Heriots FP and ) *

D.S. Davies Douglas "Doug" S. Davies (23 July 1899 – ) was a Scottish international rugby union player, who played for and the British & Irish Lions at number 8.Bath, p118 Davies was born in Ashkirk, Scottish Borders. He was capped 24 times for Scotlan ...

(

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one ...

and ) * R.A. Howie ( Kirkcaldy RFC and ) * Douglas Marsden-Jones (

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

and

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seaso ...

) * Andrew Ross ( Kilmarnock and ) * James Daniel Clinch (

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) * William Roche (

UCC The initialism UCC may stand for: Law * Uniform civil code of India, referring to proposed Civil code in the legal system of India, which would apply equally to all irrespective of their religion * Uniform Commercial Code, a 1952 uniform act to ...

and Newport) * Jim McVicker (

Collegians Collegians are an Australian rugby league football team based in Wollongong. The club are a part of Country Rugby League and compete in the Illawarra Rugby League premiership. Originally known as CBC Old Boys, the Club was founded in 1933. The ...

) * Michael Bradley (

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

) * Norman Brand (

North of Ireland FC North of Ireland Football Club is a former Irish rugby union club that was based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the first rugby club formed in what is now Northern Ireland and only two other clubs - Dublin University and Wanderers - wer ...

) Ian Smith and Roy Muir Kinnear had not been capped by Scotland at the time of the 1924 tour.

Results

Complete list of matches played by the British Isles in South Africa:1924 BRITISH RUGBY TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA - THIRD TEST
/ref> Test matches Springboks1924

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1924 British Lions Tour To South Africa British Lions tour

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

British & Irish Lions tours of South Africa Rugby union tours of Zimbabwe 1924 in South African rugby union