They left on 21 June on the Edinburgh Castle and returned on 13 October, covering 6,094 miles by rail in South Africa. England lock Ron Cove-Smith was captain of the Lions in 1924 in their first post-WW1 tour.
He had 10 Scots in his party of 29 players, and only three Welshmen, in what was the first team to be officially called ‘Lions’. They played 21 games, including four Tests, and at one stage went eight games without a win – two draws and six defeats.
They lost two full backs, Will Gaisford in the first training session and Tom Holliday in the opening game, while Scottish hooker Andrew Ross wrecked his knee in the fourth match and never played again.
The Scottish lock Rob Henderson, like Gaisford, dislocated his knee in training before the opening game and missed the first 12 matches. The flying Scottish wing Ian Smith broke his wrist and only managed four games, while England’s Grand Slam scrum half Arthur Young was restricted to nine matches through injury.
Lions manager Harry Packer, the old Newport and Wales forward, had to call up two replacements. Irishman Bill Cunningham, who was working as a dentist in Johannesburg, answered the call and then Welsh wing Harold Davies joined in.
Even so, Packer often found he was down to the bare bones in selection terms for some games. At one stage he was without six players and decided to play the Gloucester and England back row forward at full back against Western Province.
The Lions came in for some criticism for their lack of success and for allegedly “ignoring their fitness in favour of social entertainment”. Part of their downfall was a lack of a tried and trusted goalkicker. With both Gaisford and Holliday out of the equation, they turned to Scotland’s Dan Drysdale.
He was noted for his attacking qualities rather than his goalkicking and it meant the Lions only managed to convert 10 of the 43 tries they scored on tour.
They lost nine games, six of them by six points or less, and Drysdale also missed a point-blank penalty in the third Test that would have surely won the game for the Lions. It was a case of what might have been, especially as in a tight first Test they were reduced to 14 men when Reg Maxwell dislocated his shoulder and the third Test ended in a draw.
This is how some of the key men saw the tour:
THE MANAGER – HARRY PACKER
On two occasions we had just the bare fifteen available to make up a side. There were eight backs and seven forwards. I do not put this forward in any way as an excuse for our somewhat bad record, because I believe that we ought to have won at least a couple more matches.
The conduct of the tourists was very fine, and there was nothing to complain of. The heat, the hard grounds, the long distances of travel, and the differential of altitude told against us.
The statement in some papers that some of the players had been ‘doing’ themselves too well was quite uncalled for, as also was the allegation of rough play on the part of some of the members of our party.
None of the South Africans we met on the playing field complained in the least. We were certainly given a very good time by the people in South Africa.
THE PLAYERS
Scotland and Newport forward, Neil McPherson
The grounds were very hard. The African footballers played a fair good standard and were a heavy fast lot of men.
We had a job to find a side a couple of times. The suggestion that the men have feted themselves too well is ridiculous. The side played very well and came up to expectation, except in a few cases.
Wales and Swansea wing, Rowe Harding
I am very glad to get home again—we’ve had just about enough! I don’t think the standard of South African football higher than the best team we could send out and produce. Their forwards are exceptionally good. They seem to go in for a rather different style to what ours do – they do very little of the short dribbling and forward rushes we are used to.
They are heavier, but are fit and clever as well as big. They are very good at short passing and in the scrums and long line-out. In the line-out they have a trick of taking the ball and simultaneously getting away backwards, so that they are practically through the opposing defence at once.
Mervyn Ellis, who, I believe, bas Welsh forefathers, is a good type of the South African forward. Rugby football out there is THE game—in fact, it’s more than a game; it’s almost a religion. Players are never prevented from playing by their work.
