1924 British Lions tour to South Africa

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.

Lead by England's Ronald Cove-Smith and managed by 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.

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.

Touring Party

*Manager: Harry Packer

Full Backs

*D Drysdale (Heriots FP)
*W.F. Gaisford (St. Bart's Hospital)
*T.E. Holliday (Aspatria)

Three-Quarters

*Rowe Harding (Swansea)
*Ian Smith (Oxford University)
*S.W. Harris (Blackheath)
*W. Wallace (Percy Park)
*R.M. Kinnear (Heriots FP)
*J.H. Bordass (Cambridge University)
*R.B. Maxwell (Birkenhead Park)

Half backs

*Harold Davies (Newport)
*Vince Griffiths (Newport)
*H. Waddell (Glasgow Academical)
*W. Cunningham (Lansdowne)
*A.T. Young (Blackheath)
*H Whitley (Northern)

Forwards

*R. Cove-Smith (Old Merchant Taylors) "(captain)"
*A.F. Blakiston (Blackheath)
*A.T. Voyce (Gloucester)
*Neil McPherson (Newport)
*R.G. Henderson (Northern)
*K.G.P. Hendrie (Heriots FP)
*D.S. Davies (Hawick)
*R.A. Howie (Kirkcaldy)
*D Marsden-Jones (Cardiff and London Welsh)
*A. Ross (Kilmarnock)
*J.D. Clinch (Dublin University)
*William Roche (UCC and Newport)
*J. McVicker (Collegians)
*M.J. Bradley (Dolphin)
* Norman Brand (North of Ireland FC)

Results

References

*cite book |last=Thomas|first=Clem |coauthors=updated by Thomas, Greg |title=The History of The British and Irish Lions|year=2005 |publisher=Mainstream Books |isbn=1-84-596030-0 |pages=pp66-72