1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand

1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand
The British Isles team
Date	18 June – 31 August
Coach(es)	Arthur O'Brien
Tour captain(s)	David Bedell-Sivright
Test series winners	(v Australia): British Isles (0–3) (v New Zealand):   New Zealand (1–0)
Top test point scorer(s)	Percy Bush (20)
← South Africa 1903 New Zealand & Australia 1908 →

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 as previous tours, blue used in thick hoops and the red and white in thin bands. ^[1]

Touring party

• Manager: Arthur O'Brien

Full-backs Christopher Stanger-Leathes (Northern) [2] Three-quarters John Fisher (Hull and East Ridings) [3] Rhys Gabe (Cardiff) Fred Jowett (Swansea) Willie Llewellyn (Newport) Teddy Morgan (London Welsh) Pat McEvedy (Guy's Hospital) Arthur O'Brien (Guy's Hospital) Half-backs Percy Bush (Cardiff) Tommy Vile (Newport) Frank Hulme (Birkenhead Park)

Forwards David Bedell-Sivright (Cambridge University and Scotland) (captain) Sid Bevan (Swansea) Sidney Nelson Crowther (Lennox FC) John Sharland (Streatham) [4] Denys Dobson (Oxford University) Charlie Patterson (Malone RFC) [5] Reg Edwards (Malone RFC) [6] Arthur Harding (Cardiff) Burnett Massey (Hull and East Ridings) [7] Ron Rogers (Bath) [8] Stuart Saunders (Guy's Hospital) [9] D.H. Traill (Guy's Hospital) Blair Swannell (Northampton)

Caricature published in The New Zealand Free Lance following New Zealand's defeat of the British Isles in their Test match in Wellington

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

Match	Date	Opponent	Location	Result	Score
Match 1	18 June	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	27–0
Match 2	22 June	Western District Combined	Bathurst, Australia	Won	21–6
Match 3	25 June	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	29–6
Match 4	29 June	Metropolitan Union	Sydney, Australia	Won	19–6
Match 5	2 July	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Won	17–0
Match 6	6 July	Northern Districts	Newcastle, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 7	9 July	Queensland Reds	Brisbane, Australia	Won	24–5
Match 8	13 July	Metropolitan Union	Brisbane, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 9	16 July	Queensland Reds	Brisbane, Australia	Won	18–7
Match 10	20 July	Toowoomba	Toowoomba, Australia	Won	12–3
Match 11	23 July	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 12	27 July	New England	Armidale, Australia	Won	26–9
Match 13	30 July	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Won	16–0
Match 14	6 August	Canterbury / West Coast RU	Christchurch, New Zealand	Won	5–3
Match 15	10 August	Otago / Southland RU	Dunedin, New Zealand	Won	14–8
Match 16	13 August	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Lost	3–9
Match 17	17 August	Taranaki / Wanganui / Manawatu RU	New Plymouth, New Zealand	Drew	0–0
Match 18	20 August	Auckland RU	Auckland, New Zealand	Lost	0–13
Match 19	31 August	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	5–0

Summary ^[10]

Played in	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points for	Points against
Australia	14	14	0	0	265	51
New Zealand	5	2	2	1	22	33
Total	19	16	2	1	287	84

Test details

Australia 1st Test

2 July

Australia	0–17	British Isles
		Try: Bush Llewellyn Con: Harding O'Brien Drop: Bush

Sydney Cricket Ground Attendance: 34,000 Referee: Tom Pauling

Team details

Australia [note 1] British Isles Australia: Jack Verge, Charlie White, Jack Hindmarsh, Stan Wickham, Charlie Redwood, Lew Evans, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Eric Dore, Frank Nicholson (c), Billy Richards, Denis Lutge, Thomas Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: Christopher Stanger-Leathes, Willie Llewellyn, AB O'Brien, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan, P Bush, Frankie Hulme, Darkie Bedell-Sivright (c), DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

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Australia 2nd Test

23 July

Australia	3–17	British Isles
Try: Burdon		Try: Bush Llewellyn O'Brien Goal: Bush

Exhibition Ground, Brisbane Attendance: 15,000 Referee: W.H Beattie

Team details

Australia [note 1] British Isles Australia: Jack Verge, Stan Wickham (c), Phil Carmichael, Doug McLean, Snr., Charlie Redwood, John Manning, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Allen Oxlade, Voy Oxenham, Alex McKinnon, Denis Lutge, Puddin Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan (c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

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Australia 3rd Test

30 July

Australia	0–16	British Isles
		Try: Gabe, Llewellyn Morgan, Swannell Con: Bush, O'Brien

Sydney Cricket Ground Attendance: 24,000 Referee: Tom Pauling

Team details

Australia: Charlie Redwood, Fred Nicholson, Frank Futter, Stan Wickham (c), Doug McLean, Snr., Lew Evans, Francis Finley, Jack Meibusch, Allen Oxlade, Billy Richards, Blue Dixon, Denis Lutge, Jim White, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan (c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Burnett Massey, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Boxer Harding

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New Zealand

13 August

New Zealand	9–3	British Isles
Try: D McGregor (2) Pen: Wallace		Pen: Harding

Athletic Park, Wellington Attendance: 20,000 Referee: F.T. Evans (Auckland, New Zealand)

Team details

New Zealand British Isles New Zealand: Dick McGregor, Duncan McGregor, Eric Harper, ME Wood, Billy Wallace, Billy Stead (c), Patrick Harvey, Dave Gallaher, George Tyler, Paddy McMinn, WS Glenn, Tom Cross, Bernard Fanning, George Nicholson, Charlie Seeling British Isles: AB O'Brien, PF McEvedy, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan (c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, RJ Rogers, DH Trail, Denys Dobson, Sid Bevan, RW Edwards, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Arthur Harding

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Notes

1. 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. "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

• Thomas, Clem; updated by Thomas, Greg (2005). The History of The British and Irish Lions. Mainstream Books. pp. 50–54. ISBN   1-84596-030-0.

External links

• 1904 | Australia & New Zealand tour on British Lions website (archived, 6 June 2014)
• "The Lions down under: 1904". British Lions Ltd. 21 December 2009. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2015.