British Lions v The Rest

British Lions v The Rest

Event	IRFB Centenary
British Lions The Rest 7 15
Date	16 April 1986
Venue	Cardiff Arms Park
Referee	R C Francis (New Zealand)
Weather	Wet

British Lions v The Rest was a 1986 rugby union match that saw the British Lions play against 'The Rest' to celebrate the centenary of the International Rugby Football Board. The Rest consisted of players from Australia, France, New Zealand and South Africa. At the time, there were only eight unions affiliated to the Board, thus only players from those countries were chosen. The Rest beat the Lions 15–7 in April 1986 in the match played at Cardiff Arms Park.

British & Irish Lions selection

The Lions team was selected by the Four Home Unions committee which organises Lions tours. The Lions would have toured South Africa in 1986 if the regular schedule had been followed, but in December 1985 the South African Rugby Board announced they would not be inviting the Lions side to tour South Africa the following year. Political objections to South Africa's apartheid policies including a potential boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games and state of emergency in South Africa at the time lay behind this decision. The Lions squad was managed by Clive Rowlands and coached by Mick Doyle. ^[1] The 21 players selected were issued with Lions' blazers and ties and considered to be official British Lions. ^[2]

The match

The match was a midweek game in Cardiff. The wet weather marred the game, in marked contrast to the Overseas Unions match three days later played in ideal conditions at Twickenham. ^[3]

16 April 1986

British Lions	7–15	The Rest
Try: Beattie Pen: Hastings	Report	Try: Farr-Jones Poidevin Con: Lynagh (2) Pen: Lynagh

Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff Referee: Bob Francis (New Zealand)

British Lions

The Rest

FB 15 Gavin Hastings RW 14 Trevor Ringland OC 13 Brendan Mullin IC 12 John Devereux LW 11 Rory Underwood FH 10 John Rutherford SH 9 Robert Jones N8 8 John Beattie OF 7 Nigel Carr BF 6 John Jeffrey RL 5 Donal Lenihan LL 4 Wade Dooley TP 3 Des Fitzgerald HK 2 Colin Deans (c) LP 1 Jeff Whitefoot Replacements: CE 16 Mike Kiernan SH 17 Richard Hill FH 18 Malcolm Dacey PR 19 Iain Milne HK 20 Steve Brain LK 21 Iain Paxton Coach: Mick Doyle

FB 15 Serge Blanco RW 14 Patrick Estève OC 13 Andrew Slack (c) IC 12 Michael Lynagh LW 11 John Kirwan FH 10 Wayne Smith SH 9 Nick Farr-Jones N8 8 Murray Mexted BF 7 Simon Poidevin OF 6 Mark Shaw RL 5 Schalk Burger LL 4 Steve Cutler TP 3 Gary Knight HK 2 Tom Lawton LP 1 Enrique Rodriguez Replacements: HK 16 PR 17 Danie Gerber PR 18 Naas Botha LK 19 Andy Dalton LK 20 Flippie van der Merwe FL 21 Steve Tuynman Coach:

See also

• Five Nations XV v Overseas Unions XV
• World XV

References

• Starmer-Smith, Nigel, ed. (1986). Rugby - A Way of Life, An Illustrated History of Rugby. Lennard Books. p. 186. ISBN   0-7126-2662-X.

1. Griffiths, John. "The Lions tour that never was, Cecil Afrika's Sevens' career and Shane Williams' try-scoring rate". espnscrum.com. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
2. Thomas, Clem (2005). The History of the British and Irish Lions. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. p. 202. ISBN   1845960300.
3. Scrum.com match summary