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 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		Try: Farr-Jones Poidevin Con: Lynagh (2) Pen: Lynagh

Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff Referee: R C Francis (New Zealand)

British Lions

The Rest

British Lions: Gavin Hastings ( Scotland); Trevor Ringland ( Ireland), Brendan Mullin ( Ireland), John Devereux ( Wales), Rory Underwood ( England); John Rutherford ( Scotland), Robert Jones ( Wales); Jeff Whitefoot ( Wales), Colin Deans ( Scotland) (captain), Des Fitzgerald ( Ireland), Wade Dooley ( England), Donal Lenihan ( Ireland), John Jeffrey ( Scotland), John Beattie ( Scotland), Nigel Carr ( Ireland) Replacements Iain Paxton ( Scotland) for Dooley; Malcolm Dacey ( Wales) for Rutherford

The Rest: Serge Blanco ( France); Patrick Estève ( France), Andrew Slack ( Australia) (captain), Michael Lynagh ( Australia), John Kirwan ( New Zealand); Wayne Smith ( New Zealand), Nick Farr-Jones ( Australia); Enrique Rodriguez ( Australia), Tom Lawton ( Australia), Gary Knight ( New Zealand), Steve Cutler ( Australia), Schalk Burger ( South Africa), Mark Shaw ( New Zealand), Murray Mexted ( New Zealand), Simon Poidevin ( Australia)