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The 1888 British Isles tour to New Zealand and Australia was a series of rugby union games played by an unofficial British team, known at the time as the "English Footballers", against invitational teams in New Zealand and Australia. Although a private venture, this series of games was the first major tour of the Southern Hemisphere undertaken by a European team, and would pave the way for future tours which eventually manifested as the British Lions. The team boarded the SS Kaikoura at Gravesend on 9 March, returning to England on the same ship on 11 November.〔Fagan, Sean (2013) The First Lions of Rugby Victoria, Australia : Slattery. ISBN 9780987500274 〕 The team's legacy was honoured by the International Rugby Board in 2013 when the team, along with initial captain Robert Seddon, were inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame.〔 Unlike the next tour to South Africa in 1891, many publications do not retrospectively class this tour as a British Lions tour, officially or unofficially. From the tour, only four players were capped, or would be capped for their countries; Seddon, Andrew Stoddart and Tom Kent for England, and Willie Thomas for Wales. ==Tour background== The 1888 tour was organised by three professional English cricketers, James Lillywhite, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury, but they could not obtain patronage from the Rugby Football Union who refused to patronise by the tour,〔Griffiths (1987), pg 9:3.〕 though the RFU was happy for the tour to go ahead, provided there was no infingement of the rules of amateurism.〔Griffiths (1990), pg 15.〕 The team was led by England's Robert L Seddon and took in 35 games, though no test matches against international opposition. Of the games played the tourists won twenty seven, drew six and lost two matches. The tour was undertaken by Shaw and Shrewsbury as a purely financial exercise with little regard to producing a "British Isles" team, and the team itself is more often recorded as an English team. The two managers were not unfamiliar with touring sides, having organised cricket teams to Australia, and the rugby tour was a follow on from the financially disastrous England Cricket tour of 1887. The rugby tour was not an economic success either and lost both managers money. Worse was to occur when team captain Seddon, drowned on 15 August〔(Robert Seddon rugby statistics ) scrum.com. Accessed 7 March 2009. (Archived ) 2009-05-03.〕 in an accident while sculling on the Hunter River〔(Seddon's last hurrah ) Lionsrugby.com. Accessed 7 March 2009. (Archived ) 2009-05-03.〕 in West Maitland. The captaincy was then passed to Andrew Stoddart a future England rugby captain and Wisden Cricketer of the Year. A further economic issue that related to the tour was the burgeoning professional movement that was gathering momentum in England at the time. Rugby players and clubs in Britain were divided by the growing belief that players should be paid for their time playing their sport. The growing popularity of the now professional Association Football was causing many, especially in the North of England, to challenge the amateur standing of the union code. One of the catalysts to the split between amateur union code and the future league code, was when Jack P. Clowes, a member of the 1888 tour, was designated a 'professional' sportsman after he accepted £15 to buy equipment shortly before he left for Australia. The other players on the tour were then required to sign an affidavit to state they were not to be paid for playing rugby when in Australia and New Zealand.〔Smart, Ted ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Rugby: The Definitive Guide to World Rugby Union''; Carlton Books (1997) ISBN 1-85868-076-X〕 The tourists played in red, white and blue hooped jerseys and white shorts.〔(Lions name is a source of great pride ) ''The Times'' 19 June 2009〕 In addition to playing 35 game of rugby union, the Lions team also played 19 games of Victorian Rules Football (later known as Australian Rules Football). The Lions won 6 of the matches under the Australian rules, despite having no experience with the code prior to the tour. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1888 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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