The 1954 Great Britain Lions tour was a tour by the

Great Britain national rugby league team The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions. For most of the 20th century, the Great Britain team toured overseas, ...

of Australia and New Zealand which took place between May and August 1954. Captained by

Dickie Williams Richard "Dickie" L. Williams (16 March 1925 – 26 March 1997) was a Welsh rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Mountain Ash RFC and Bristol RUFC, ...

, the tour involved a schedule of 32 games: 22 in Australia and 10 in New Zealand, with two three-match Test Series against both nations.
The tour began inauspiciously, with Great Britain losing four of their first seven matches, including the First Test against Australia in Sydney. Moving into the Queensland leg, the Lions’ results improved, and they won all nine of their matches in the state. This included victory in the Second Test in Brisbane.
A common feature of many of the tour matches was rough play, punches being throw in and out of tackles. The July 10 match against New South Wales was abandoned by the referee seventeen minutes into the second half due to persistent brawling by the players.
One week after the abandoned game, Australia won the Third Test to claim

the Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...

by a 2-1 margin.
Moving to New Zealand, Great Britain lost the Second Test, but recovered to win the Third Test and the series, by a 2-1 margin.
The tour concluded with three matches in five days back in Australia at Sydney, Canberra and Maitland.
Despite being a British team – five of the squad were Welsh, two from Scotland and hooker

Tom McKinney Thomas McKinney (31 December 1926 – 10 November 1999) was an Irish rugby union and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played club level rugby union (RU) for Jed-Forest RFC, and representative level rugb ...

from Northern Ireland – the team played, and were often referred to by both the press at home and away, as England.

Squad

Australian Leg

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1st Test

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2nd Test

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3rd Test

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New Zealand leg

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1st Test

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2nd Test

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3rd Test

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Australian return Leg

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Statistics

Brian Carlson Brian Patrick Carlson (12 February 1933 – 14 April 1987) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a & utility back for the Australia national team. He played in 17 Tests and 6 World C ...

Clive Churchill Clive Bernard Churchill AM (21 January 1927 – 9 August 1985) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach in the mid-20th century. An Australian international and New South Wales and Queensland interstate representative ...

Keith Holman Keith Victor Holman, MBE (11 September 1927 – 11 October 2011) was an Australian Rugby League footballer, a national and state representative whose club career was played with Western Suburbs from 1949 to 1961. He has since been name ...

Ken Kearney Kenneth Howard "Killer" Kearney (3 May 192418 August 2006) was an Australian rugby footballer – a List of dual-code rugby internationals, dual-code international player – and a rugby league coach. He represented the Australia national rugby ...

, and

Norm Provan Norman Douglas Somerville Provan (18 December 1932 – 13 October 2021) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. Also nicknamed "Sticks", he was a second-row forward with the St George Dragons during the first ten of t ...

all appeared in seven matches against Great Britain - in each instance three games for Australia, three for New South Wales and one for Sydney. The most tries scored against the Lions was six, by Brian Carlson. Keith Holman and Ken McCaffery each scored four tries. Noel Pidding scored the most points against the tourists, with 51 from three tries and 21 goals in five matches.
In the Test Series the leading scorers were Noel Pidding 36 (Australia) and Des White 22 (New Zealand). Lewis Jones scored the most points for the Lions against both opponents, 30 against Australia and 20 against New Zealand.
Billy Boston scored six tries in the six tests, including four against New Zealand. Dickie Williams scored three tries against Australia. Brian Carlson scored three tries in the Ashes Tests for Australia. No New Zealander scored more than a single try in their three Test series.

Sources

References

{{Rugby League Ashes series Great Britain national rugby league team tours Rugby league tours of Australia Rugby league tours of New Zealand Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand