and decided we were the best ever touring side even before we played a game.’
As always, getting the men of five different nations to gel together was a crucial part of the tour. ‘If truth were to be told,’ said Ernest Michie, ‘the Irish and the Scots seemed to get on very well, but there was a preponderance of Welsh players in the squad and they tended to keep to themselves a little bit.’ Farmer Jeeps has a more pithy description: ‘The Welsh stuck together like shit to a blanket, as we said plenty of times on that tour.’
Yet gel they did, helped by Siggins’ decision to rotate room-mates every few weeks. In order to help that bonding process, the 1955 Lions also set out on their first public duty the day after they arrived—a supposedly leisurely round of golf. Once again, thousands of South Africans turned out to welcome the Lions, though what it did for their nerves on the first tee can only be guessed at.
The Lions soon found out just how different rugby was in South Africa. The forwards were dragged into the sort of physical encounters they had never experienced before, but usually won sufficient ball for the Lions’ superior backs to show their paces. The sheer quality of the Lions’ play entranced their South African hosts, who nevertheless did not stand back in admiration.
Hugh McLeod said: ‘I loved the hard ground, but a lot of the guys didn’t. There was no such thing as an easy game in South Africa, no matter who you were playing. They were big guys and always at you. But the harder the game, the more I liked it.’
On a tour again beset with injuries, Clem Thomas developed appendicitis, had the necessary operation, and was back playing within five weeks. Arthur Smith, the flying Scottish winger, was not so lucky, playing in only four matches after breaking a bone in his wrist—his turn would come seven years later.
Like Smith, the walking wounded were plentiful. The Rev. Robin Roe played matches at hooker with two cracked ribs. Reg Higgins tore ligaments in the first Test and missed half the tour, while Rhys Williams had two front teeth knocked out against the Orange Free State but played on as his incensed colleagues took their opponents apart with the best form of revenge, winning 31–3.
It was after that match that the Lions also took measures to protect themselves against ‘cheap shots’, as Thomas described them. ‘It became necessary to have a fixer to stop such unprovoked attacks’, wrote Thomas in the History. ‘I was made the avenging angel. Tony O’Reilly would come up to me and say “number four” or whatever, and I was supposed to go in and mete out punishment at the next opportunity, preferably at a nice loose maul. I don’t know how I got such a difficult job!’
The Lions were learning fast about the South African approach to rugby, and it soon became clear that, in the Tests, if the forwards could raise their game to match the Springbok pack, the backs could finish the job. South African rugby might well be of a different order to the homegrown variety, but it did not make it necessarily better.
The clash of cultures off the field was just as pronounced. Clem Thomas recalled being presented with the skin of a freshly shot leopard, and later on in the tour a farmer presented him with a lion cub. ‘Siggins insisted on me donating it to a local zoo, which I did with some relief’, wrote Thomas.
As Bryn Meredith put it, ‘there’s no point in going 7,000 miles and not seeing some of the country’ and by the time they had finished the tour, the Lions had covered more than 10,000 miles within southern Africa, including Rhodesia. All are agreed that a two-day visit to Kruger Park, the national wildlife reserve and safari centre, was the highlight: ‘Travel was a bit primitive, but Kruger Park was a wonderful experience—I’ve been back three times since,’ said Dickie Jeeps.
It was early on in the tour that a certain player did a disappearing act, having fallen in love with a local girl. His name has never been revealed and, true to their ties of brotherhood, even 50-odd years later his identity is still kept a secret. Apparently he really was injured, but not as badly as was made out and the only disease he was suffering from was lovesickness. The Romeo went off with his Juliet and missed several games as a consequence. He did eventually return to the party, and the cover story of his ‘injury’ held not only then but still does. ‘What went on tour stayed on tour, even though he went off tour,’ as one 1955 Lion put it. ‘Anyway, the rest of us were just jealous.’
Dickie Jeeps had not long been married to his first wife, Jean, but does not blame his touring for the fact that they eventually split up:
It wasn’t the tour or anything that happened on it; it was me. I did meet a girl after the first Test in 1955 and it was all perfectly innocent. She liked dancing and I liked dancing, but nothing else happened. And would you believe it—the first time I went into the Mayfair Hotel in London after being selected for England, there she was, working as a receptionist.
The Lions lost their opening match to Western Transvaal 6–9, before a run of ten victories and another loss to Eastern Province took them to the first Test in Johannesburg. Ernest Michie recalls that the Test side was decided pretty much in advance, but there was competition to be named as a reserve.
‘In those days you would be named as a reserve but would only play if a member of the Test team dropped out before the match, as there were still no substitutes or replacements allowed during the match,’ said Michie.
There were four second row forwards in the squad and one of them was the tour captain, so that meant there were three of us going for one place. I was named as first reserve but never got to play, and it was the closest I ever came to making the Test team.
In any case, I got to ‘play’ in one sense, because I had taken my bagpipes with me on the tour and I played the team onto the pitch for that first Test.
The match has gone down in history as one of the greatest internationals ever played. The Lions won 23–22 in front of a world-record crowd of 95,000, plus at least another 10,000 who got in by dubious means. Dickie Jeeps recalled how one stand was given over to black South Africans, and they roared their support for the men in red rather than green.
Jeeps explained: ‘Many of them had got in over some scaffolding and it was absolutely packed. I was told many years later that Nelson Mandela had been in among them. It was good to have their support.’
The manner of the victory was very pleasing, the Lions playing running rugby and coming from behind, while also playing the second half of the match with 14 men after Higgins retired injured. A brilliant try under the posts by Cliff Morgan saw the Lions forge ahead and further second-half tries by Jim Greenwood and O’Reilly put them 23–11 up, only for South Africa to draw within a point with a late try.
The Springboks goal kicker Jack van der Schyff stepped up to take the conversion which would decide the outcome: ‘I remember we were all standing under the posts,’ said Dickie Jeeps, ‘just watching and waiting, while Billy Williams stood there with his hands together saying, “the Lord will keep this out, the Lord will keep this out”’.
Divine judgement or not, the conversion was missed, and the Lions had won a Test in South Africa for only the third time in the 20th century.
Danie Craven was the dictatorial coach of the Springboks and his reaction was one of fury at his side’s complacency. He dropped five of the team including goal kicker Jack van der Schyff who had missed the late conversion—he never played for South Africa again. The Boks went all out for revenge and got it in some style, outclassing the Lions 25–9 in the second Test.
The third Test proved crucial to the success of the tour. Angus Cameron’s injured knee caused him to be left out and replaced by Doug Baker, while Clem Thomas came in for his Lions Test debut.
