1924 British Lions tour to South Africa

March 2014 March 2014 British Isles 12 July – 25 September Harry Packer ENG Ronald Cove-Smith RSA 1912 3–0 ENG Tom Voyce (6) South Africa 1910 Argentina 1927 1924 1924 21 9 3 9 3 0 0 3 RSA 1912 4 0 1 3 The 1924 British Isles tour to South Africa was the tenth tour by a British 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 in Zimbabwe. Tour history Led by England's Ronald Cove-Smith and managed by former Wales international Harry Packer, 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 and 1968 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. left _collarwhite _whitetop 000099 000099 000099 ffffff ff0000 Team kit 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 and Thomas Holliday went on to become dual code rugby internationals after they switched to rugby league. 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: Harry Packer Full Backs D Drysdale (Heriots FP and Scotland) W.F. Gaisford (St. Bart's Hospital) T.E. Holliday (Aspatria) Three-Quarters Rowe Harding (Swansea) Ian Smith (Oxford University and Scotland)uncapped 1 1 Stanley "Stan" Wakefield Harris (Blackheath) William "Bill" Wallace (Percy Park) Roy Kinnear (Heriots FP and Scotland)uncapped 1 1 James Bordass (Cambridge University) Reginald "Reg" Bellamy Maxwell (Birkenhead Park) Half backs Harold Davies (Newport) Vince Griffiths (Newport) Herbert Waddell (Glasgow Academicals and Scotland) Bill Cunningham (Lansdowne) Arthur Young (Blackheath) Herbert Whitley (Northern) Forwards R. Cove-Smith (Old Merchant Taylors) (captain) Arthur Frederick "Freddie" Blakiston (Blackheath) A. Thomas "Tom" Voyce (Gloucester) Neil McPherson (Newport) R.G. Henderson (Northern and Scotland) K.G.P. Hendrie (Heriots FP and Scotland) D.S. Davies (Hawick and Scotland) R.A. Howie (Kirkcaldy RFC and Scotland) Douglas Marsden-Jones (Cardiff and London Welsh) Andrew Ross (Kilmarnock and Scotland) Jammie Clinch (Dublin University) William Roche (UCC and Newport) Jim McVicker (Collegians) Michael Bradley (Dolphin) Norman Brand (North of Ireland FC) uncapped 1 1 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:http://www.stgeorgespark.nmmu.ac.za/content/rugby/displayarticle.asp?artid=rug_011 1924 BRITISH RUGBY TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA - THIRD TEST 17 June 2018 9 February 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120209135941/http://www.stgeorgespark.nmmu.ac.za/content/rugby/displayarticle.asp?artid=rug_011 dead #ffff99 silver Test matches thumb|right|300px|The South Africa team that played the third test v the British Isles on 13 September # Date Opponent Location Result Score 1 12 July Western Province (Town & Country) Cape Town Lost 6–7 2 15 July Western Province (Universities) Cape Town Won 9–8 3 19 July Griqualand West Kimberley Won 26–0 4 24 July Southern Rhodesia Salisbury Won 16–3 5 30 July Western Transvaal Potchefstroom Won 8–7 6 2 August Transvaal Johannesburg Drawn 12–12 7 6 August Orange Free State (Country) Kroonstad Lost 0–6 8 9 August Orange Free State Bloemfontein Lost 3–6 9 13 August Natal Pietermaritzburg Drawn 3–3 10 16 August RSA 1912 Durban Lost 3–7 11 20 August Witwatersrand Johannesburg Lost 6–10 12 23 August RSA 1912 Johannesburg Lost 0–17 13 27 August Pretoria Pretoria Lost 0–6 14 30 August Cape Colony Kimberley Won 13–3 15 3 September North Eastern Districts Aliwal North Won 20–12 16 6 September Border East London Won 12–3 17 10 September Eastern Province Port Elizabeth Lost 6–14 18 13 September RSA 1912 Port Elizabeth Drawn 3–3 19 16 September South Western Districts Oudtshoorn Won 12–6 20 20 September RSA 1912 Cape Town Lost 9–16 21 25 September Western Province Cape Town Won 8–6 Bibliography Thomas Clem Thomas, Greg (update) The History of The British and Irish Lions 2005 Mainstream Books 1-84596-030-0 66–72 References expanded British Lions tour Category:British & Irish Lions tours of South Africa Category:Rugby union tours of Zimbabwe 1924 1924 tour tour tour tour British Lions tour British Lions tour