BRITISH AND IRISH LIONS

COMPREHENSIONThe British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for anyof the Home Nations – the national sides of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. TheLions are a Test side, and generally select international players, but they can pickuncapped players available to any one of the four unions. The side tours every fouryears, with these rotating among Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

From 1888 onwards combined rugby sides from the United Kingdom of Great Britainand Ireland toured the Southern Hemisphere. The first tour was a commercial venture,and was undertaken without official backing. The six subsequent visits enjoyed agrowing degree of support from the authorities, before the 1910 South Africa tour,which was the first tour representative of the four Home Unions. In 1949 the four HomeUnions formally created a Tours Committee and for the first time, every player of the1950 Lions squad had played internationally before the tour. The 1950s tours saw highwin rates in provincial games, but the Test series were typically lost or drawn. Thewinning series in 1971 (New Zealand) and 1974 (South Africa) changed this pattern. Thelast tour of the amateur age took place in 1993.

2009

The Lions faced the World Cup winners South Africa, with Ian McGeechan leading acoaching team including Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Rob Howley. The Lionswere captained by Irish lock Paul O'Connell. The initial Lions selection consisted of 14Irish players, 13 Welsh, 8 English and 2 Scots in the 37-man squad.

In the first Test on 20 June, they lost 26–21, and lost the series in the second 28–25 ina tightly-fought game at Loftus Versfeld on 27 June. The Lions won the third Test 28–9at Ellis Park, and the series finished 2–1 to South Africa.

2013

Former Scotland and Lions full-back Andy Irvine was appointed as tour manager in2010. Wales head coach Warren Gatland was the Lions' head coach, and their tourcaptain was Sam Warburton. The tour started in Hong Kong with a match against theBarbarians before moving on to Australia for the main tour featuring six provincialmatches and three tests.

The Lions won all but one non-test matches, losing to the Brumbies 14–12. The firsttest was followed shortly after this, which saw the Lions win over Australia 23–21.Australia did have a chance to take the win in the final moments of the game, but amissed penalty by Kurtley Beale saw the Lions take the win. The Wallabies drew theseries in the second test winning 16–15. With tour captain Warburton out of the finaltest due to injury, Alun Wyn Jones took over the captaincy in the final test in Sydney.The final test was won by the Lions in what was a record win, winning 41–16 to earntheir first series win since 1997 and their first over Australia since 1989.

Extract taken from the British and Irish Lions Wikipedia page.

BRITISH AND IRISH LIONS

COMPREHENSION

Questions

1. Which four countries make up the Lions?

2. How often do the Lions go on tour?

3. Which countries do the Lions traditionally visit?

4. In what year did the first Lions team tour the Southern Hemisphere?

5. What was created in 1949?

6. What was special about the tour of 1950?

7. The Loins tours of the 1950's saw the tourists lose or draw the test series,when did this start to change?

8. Who were the members of the management staff during the 2009 Lions tour?

9. How many palyers from each country were selected in 2009?

10. Which two players captained the test matches in 2013?

11. Where did the 2013 Lions tour begin?

12. 2013 was the first series win since when?

13. Which Australian player had a chance to win the first test in 2013?

14. How do you think the players felt after winning the 2013 series withAustralia?

15. How do you think a player would feel to be selected as part of the Britishand Irish Lions?