1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand

1904 British Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand
The British Isles team
Date	18 June – 31 August
Coach(es)	Arthur O'Brien
Tour captain(s)	David Bedell-Sivright
Test series winners	(v Australia): British Isles (0–3) (v New Zealand):  New Zealand (1–0)
Top test point scorer(s)	Percy Bush (20)
← South Africa 1903 New Zealand & Australia 1908 →

The 1904 British Isles tour to New Zealand and Australia was the sixth tour by a British Isles rugby union team and the third to New Zealand or Australia. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.

Led by Scotland captain David Bedell-Sivright and managed by Arthur O'Brien the tour included 19 matches, 14 in Australia and 5 in New Zealand. Four of the fixtures were test matches – three against Australia and one against the New Zealand All Blacks. The Lions won all three Australian tests but lost the All Blacks' game.

This was the first time that a British team played both Australia and New Zealand in the same tour. It was also the last series until 1989 in which Australian matches were the major component; in between the only Australian fixtures were those appended onto a longer New Zealand tour. The team's captain, Bedell-Sivright, a veteran of the 1903 tour of South Africa, was requested to lead the team by England's Rugby Football Union. Bedell-Sivright broke his leg in the opening match of the New Zealand leg of the tour and Teddy Morgan took over the captaincy.

The uniforms worn by the Lions remained the same than previous tours, blue used in thick hoops and the red and white in thin bands.^[1]

Touring party

• Manager: Arthur O'Brien

Results

Complete list of matches played by the British Lions:^[10][11][12]

  Test matches

Match	Date	Opponent	Location	Result	Score
Match 1	18 June	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	27–0
Match 2	22 June	Western District Combined	Bathurst, Australia	Won	21–6
Match 3	25 June	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	29–6
Match 4	29 June	Metropolitan Union	Sydney, Australia	Won	19–6
Match 5	2 July	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Won	17–0
Match 6	6 July	Northern Districts	Newcastle, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 7	9 July	Queensland Reds	Brisbane, Australia	Won	24–5
Match 8	13 July	Metropolitan Union	Brisbane, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 9	16 July	Queensland Reds	Brisbane, Australia	Won	18–7
Match 10	20 July	Toowoomba	Toowoomba, Australia	Won	12–3
Match 11	23 July	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Won	17–3
Match 12	27 July	New England	Armidale, Australia	Won	26–9
Match 13	30 July	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Won	16–0
Match 14	6 August	Canterbury / West Coast RU	Christchurch, New Zealand	Won	5–3
Match 15	10 August	Otago / Southland RU	Dunedin, New Zealand	Won	14–8
Match 16	13 August	New Zealand	Wellington, New Zealand	Lost	3–9
Match 17	17 August	Taranaki / Wanganui / Manawatu RU	New Plymouth, New Zealand	Drew	0–0
Match 18	20 August	Auckland RU	Auckland, New Zealand	Lost	0–13
Match 19	31 August	NSW Waratahs	Sydney, Australia	Won	5–0

Summary^[10]

Played in	Matches	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points for	Points against
Australia	14	14	0	0	265	51
New Zealand	5	2	2	1	22	33
Total	17	14	2	1	287	84

Test details

Australia 1st Test

Team details

Australia [note 1] British Isles Australia: Jack Verge, Charlie White, Jack Hindmarsh, Stan Wickham, Charlie Redwood, Lew Evans, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Eric Dore, Frank Nicholson (c), Billy Richards, Denis Lutge, Thomas Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: Christopher Stanger-Leathes, Willie Llewellyn, AB O'Brien, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan, P Bush, Frankie Hulme, Darkie Bedell-Sivright (c), DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

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Australia 2nd Test

Team details

Australia [note 1] British Isles Australia: Jack Verge, Stan Wickham (c), Phil Carmichael, Doug McLean, Snr., Charlie Redwood, John Manning, Snowy Baker, Alec Burdon, Allen Oxlade, Voy Oxenham, Alex McKinnon, Denis Lutge, Puddin Colton, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan(c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Stuart Saunders, SN Crowther, B Swannell, Boxer Harding

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Australia 3rd Test

Team details

Australia: Charlie Redwood, Fred Nicholson, Frank Futter, Stan Wickham (c), Doug McLean, Snr., Lew Evans, Francis Finley, Jack Meibusch, Allen Oxlade, Billy Richards, Blue Dixon, Denis Lutge, Jim White, Harold Judd, Patrick Walsh British Isles: AB O'Brien, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, Pat McEvedy, T Morgan(c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, Reg Edwards DH Trail, D Dobson, S Bevan, Burnett Massey, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Boxer Harding

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New Zealand

Team details

New Zealand British Isles New Zealand: Dick McGregor, Duncan McGregor, Eric Harper, ME Wood, Billy Wallace, Billy Stead (c), Patrick Harvey, Dave Gallaher, George Tyler, Paddy McMinn, WS Glenn, Tom Cross, Bernard Fanning, George Nicholson, Charlie Seeling British Isles: AB O'Brien, PF McEvedy, Willie Llewellyn, Rhys Gabe, T Morgan (c), P Bush, Tommy Vile, RJ Rogers, DH Trail, Denys Dobson, Sid Bevan, RW Edwards, SN Crowther, Blair Swannell, Arthur Harding

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Notes

References

Further reading

• Thomas, Clem; updated by Thomas, Greg (2005). The History of The British and Irish Lions. Mainstream Books. pp. 50–54. ISBN 1-84596-030-0.

External links

HistoryPlayersTrophiesMatches

By opponent	Argentina Australia New Zealand South Africa Other countries
See also	Test series The Rest (1986) France (1989) Rest of Europe (1989)

Tours

Australia	1888 1899 1904 1908 1930 1950 1959 1966 1971 1989 2001 2013 2025
New Zealand	1888 1899 1904 1908 1930 1950 1959 1966 1971 1977 1983 1993 2005 2017
South Africa	1891 1896 1903 1910 1924 1938 1955 1962 1968 1974 1980 1997 2009 2021
Argentina	1910 1927 1936

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