In 1980 the British Lionsrugby union team toured South Africa (including one game in Windhoek, South West Africa, the future Namibia). The tour was not a success for the Lions, as they lost the first three tests before salvaging some pride with a win in the fourth. The team did however win all their 14 non-international matches. The Lions were captained by Bill Beaumont.
Political controversy
The tour went ahead in the face of opposition from the British Government and groups opposed to sporting contact with the apartheid regime in South Africa. Britain was a signatory to the 1977 Gleneagles Agreement in which Commonwealth governments agreed to discourage sporting contacts with South Africa. The Government of the Republic of Ireland were also against the tour. The Four Home Unions committee which organises Lions tours decided to go ahead with the planned tour, despite this opposition, in November 1979 and the rugby unions of England (RFU), Ireland (IRFU), Scotland (SRU) and Wales (WRU) all approved the tour by January 1980.
Touring party, injuries and replacements
Of the 30 players originally selected, ten had previous Lions tour experience. Derek Quinnell had toured New Zealand in 1971 and 1977; Andy Irvine and Fran Cotton had toured South Africa in 1974 and New Zealand in 1977 while Bruce Hay, Bill Beaumont, Allan Martin, Graham Price, Jeff Squire, Peter Wheeler and Clive Williams had all toured New Zealand in 1977. Elgan Rees, added to the party before it left the UK, and Phil Orr, a replacement during the tour, had also toured in 1977. Quinnell was selected despite not playing in the 1980 Five Nations Championship; he had also toured in 1971 when yet to be capped by Wales.
The tour party was disrupted by an unusually high number of injuries and replacements throughout the 10-week-long tour. Eight players flew to South Africa to reinforce the original 30 tourists; Gareth Williams, Tony Ward, Ian Stephens, John Robbie, Phil Orr, Andy Irvine, Paul Dodge and Steve Smith.
Smith joined the tour as cover prior to the final test after Patterson was injured and did not appear in any games. Irvine was in the original 30 selected tourists but withdrew due to injury prior to leaving the UK. He was replaced by Elgan Rees but joined the tour later when Slemen withdrew.
Nine players left the tour early, including Mike Slemen who went home due to family illness. The eight players who were ruled out by injury were Rodney O'Donnell (neck), David Richards (shoulder), Gareth Davies (shoulder and knee), Terry Holmes (shoulder and knee), Stuart Lane (knee), Phil Blakeway (rib) and Fran Cotton (suspected heart trouble). Lane's injury occurred after 55 seconds of the opening game and gave him the shortest career of any Lions tourist. He never played international rugby again. O'Donnell's neck injury ended his rugby career completely. Colin Patterson suffered a knee injury in the penultimate game against Griqualand West which also proved career-ending.[1]
Noel Murphy
Bill Beaumont
South Africa (1–3)
