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1974 British Lions tour to South Africa From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search 1974 British Lions Tour to South Africa Date 15 May  – 27 July Coach(es) Syd Millar Tour captain(s) Willie John McBride Test series winners British and Irish Lions (3–0) Top test point scorer(s) Phil Bennett (26) ? New Zealand 1971 New Zealand 1977 ?

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In 1974 the British Lions toured South Africa, with matches in South West Africa and Rhodesia (which would become Namibia and Zimbabwe respectively). The tour was a great success, the Lions winning 21 of their 22 matches and drawing the other. After winning the first three test matches, the Lions drew the final test when the South African referee blew the final whistle four minutes early with the Lions two metres from the South African try line, thus preserving their unbeaten record, but denying them a tour whitewash.

The test series was beset by violence. The management of the Lions unilaterally declared that in their opinion the Springboks dominated their opponents with physical aggression because of their famous size advantage, 'off the ball' and 'blind side' play. In the buildup games, and in McBride's previous tours of South Africa, provincial sides had tended to use their physical size, late tackling and dirty play to deliberately intimidate and injure Lions players prior to Test matches. McBride again saw this tactic of targeting certain players being used by the provinces in '74, and decided that the '99 call' (originally the '999 call' but it was too slow to shout out) was meant to show that the Lions were a team and would not take any more of the violence being meted out to them. It was a harsh response to what the team were facing, but intended to show that the Lions would act as one and fight unsporting behaviour with more of the same. The idea was that the referee would be unlikely to send off all of the Lions if they all attacked. At the 'Battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium', in Port Elizabeth, one of the most violent matches in rugby history, there is famous video footage of JPR Williams running over half of the pitch and launching himself at Moaner van Heerden after such a call. Although an extreme response, the 99 call was only used once (according to McBride), as it sent out the message that the Lions were willing and more than able to respond in kind and protect themselves.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Squad
  • 1.1 Management
  • 1.2 Backline
  • 1.3 Forwards
• 2 Results
• 3 The matches
  • 3.1 First Test
  • 3.2 Second Test
  • 3.3 Third Test
  • 3.4 Fourth Test
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Squad[edit]

Management[edit]

• Manager Alun Thomas (Wales)
• Coach Syd Millar (Ireland)

Backline[edit]

Fullbacks:

• JPR Williams (London Welsh and Wales)
• Andy Irvine (Heriot's FP and Scotland)

Wings:

• Tom Grace (St Mary's College RFC and Ireland)
• J.J. Williams (Llanelli and Wales)
• William Steele (Bedford and R.A.F. and Scotland)
• Clive Rees (London Welsh and Wales)
• Alan Morley (Bristol and England) as replacement

Centres:

• Richard Milliken (Bangor and Ireland)
• Ian McGeechan (Headingley and Scotland)
• Roy Bergiers (Llanelli and Wales)
• Geoff Evans (Coventry and England)

Flyhalves:

• Phil Bennett (Llanelli and Wales)
• Alan Old (Leicester and England)
• Mike Gibson (North of Ireland FC and Ireland) as replacement

Scrumhalves:

• Gareth Edwards (Cardiff and Wales)
• John Moloney (St. Mary's College and Ireland)

Forwards[edit]

Hookers

• Bobby Windsor (Pontypool and Wales)
• Ken Kennedy (London Irish and Ireland)

Props

• Ian McLauchlan (Jordanhill College RFC and Scotland)
• Sandy Carmichael (West of Scotland and Scotland)
• Fran Cotton (Coventry and England)
• Mike Burton (Gloucester and England)

Locks

• Willie John McBride (capt) (Ballymena and Ireland)
• Chris Ralston (Richmond and England)
• Gordon Brown (West of Scotland and Scotland)
• Roger Uttley (Gosforth and England)

Loose Forwards

• Fergus Slattery (Blackrock College and Ireland)
• Stewart McKinney (Dungannon and Ireland)
• Tom David (Llanelli and Wales)
• Tony Neary (Broughton Park and England)
• Andy Ripley (Rosslyn Park and England)
• Mervyn Davies (Swansea and Wales)

Results[edit]

Date Opponent Location Result Score Match 1 15 May Western Transvaal Potchefstroom Won 59–13 Match 2 18 May South West Africa Windhoek Won 23–16 Match 3 22 May Boland Wellington Won 23–6 Match 4 25 May Eastern Province Port Elizabeth Won 28–14 Match 5 29 May South West Districts Mossel Bay Won 97–0 Match 6 1 June Western Province Cape Town Won 17–8 Match 7 4 June SA Federation XV (Proteas) Goodwood, Cape Town Won 37–6 Match 8 8 June SOUTH AFRICA Cape Town Won 12–3 Match 9 11 June Southern Universities Cape Town Won 26–4 Match 10 15 June Transvaal Johannesburg Won 23–15 Match 11 18 June Rhodesia Salisbury Won 42–6 Match 12 22 June SOUTH AFRICA Pretoria Won 28–9 Match 13 27 June Quaggas Johannesburg Won 20–16 Match 14 29 June Orange Free State Bloemfontein Won 11–9 Match 15 3 July Griqualand West Kimberley Won 69–16 Match 16 6 July Northern Transvaal Pretoria Won 16–12 Match 17 9 July SA Africans (Leopards) East London Won 56–10 Match 18 13 July SOUTH AFRICA Port Elizabeth Won 26–9 Match 19 17 July Border East London Won 26–6 Match 20 20 July Natal Durban Won 34–6 Match 21 23 July Eastern Transvaal Springs Won 33–10 Match 22 27 July SOUTH AFRICA Johannesburg Draw 13–13

Willie-John McBride's 1974 Lions were a truly great side and yes, they definitely have a claim to being the greatest rugby team of all time but they have competition from Hennie Muller's 1951/2 Springboks and Sean Fitzpatrick's 1996 All Blacks.

Man, I miss proper international rugby tours.

Agreed Pakie.....nothing beats those old traditional tours......the perfect opportunity for a coach to test his depth  

 Yeah well, blame the RWC for that. 
Personally, I prefer the old days  

Not to mention the Super Farceteen.

Those provincial games were some of the highlights of these tours. There were always at least a few epic encounters in between the tests .

 So did we, we had Divisionals and Club matches against the Touring teams. 
The good old days before money became the new God