Rugby and Cricket News
Living With The Lions Sports Travel

The British & Irish Lions will break new ground on their 2013 tour of Australia by taking on the Barbarians in Hong Kong.

The tourists will face the famous invitational side for the first time since 1977 in a curtain-raiser for their Test series with the Wallabies, creating another chapter in their history with their first game in the region.

Legendary Scotland fullback Andy Irvine has been confirmed as the manager of the tour - with former Wales wing Gerald Davies named as Lions chairman.

Irvine, 59, won 60 caps for Scotland in a glittering career, touring with the Lions on three occasions following his bow on their famous 1974 trip to South Africa. In total he played 41 games for them, including nine Tests, and scored 19 tries.

He will now take on the key task of identifying the coach to lead the tourists against the Wallabies, who triumphed 2-1 in the Test series on their last meeting in 2001, alongside Davies, who managed the 2009 tour to South Africa.

“Last year’s tour was a phenomenal showcase for rugby, and I look forward to upholding the best of Lions traditions when we travel to the home of the Wallabies for what will be a fantastic experience,” Irvine said. “In the meantime, I can’t wait to get my teeth into the planning and logistics that will be so crucial to the success of the tour over the next two-and-a-half years.”

The tourists have also renewed their sponsorship deal with HSBC until the end of the tour to Australia and the bank will continue as the Lions’ principle partner and shirt sponsor, extending the agreement that was first signed in 2007.

“To be able to confirm today that the Lions will break new ground with their first ever fixture in Hong Kong will ensure the tour to Australia is even more special,” Lions chief executive John Feehan said.

“I’d also like to congratulate Andy and Gerald on their appointments. The Lions will benefit hugely from having two highly regarded and respected former Lions at the helm for the tour to Australia.”

Hong Kong has a strong rugby heritage thanks to the annual Hong Kong Sevens and has moved up to hosting Test matches in recent seasons thanks to the policy of taking Bledisloe Cup Tests to Asia - with the All Blacks and Wallabies set to face off on October 30 at Hong Kong Stadium. The fixture was first staged at the ground in 2008 although this year’s edition was initially plagued by poor ticket sales.

Pre-Register for the LWTL 2013 tour by clicking this link

We are very excited to hear that our very own Lions host, Robert Jones (Wales and Lions) has been asked to join a team of 15 ex-Wales captains to climb Kilimanjaro this September. Anoether of our previous hosts Ieuan Evans will also be making the climb and we wish them both all their best with their charitable endeavours. When I have more news about the charities we will place the links on here.

Good luck training!

Its early days at the moment but there is talk of an LWTL 2009 Lions reunion taking place before the Wales v England game on Friday 4 February, 2011. Watch this space for more news, but if all goes well there will be a pre-match party before the game and hopefully maybe even a game to watch! Rob Jones and John Bentley have both offered to dust off their boots so at this stage, anything looks possible!

Our recent Lions tour was a “roaring” success, we took 450 enthusiastic supporters from all walks of life to South Africa. We saw all 4 corners of the country, witnessed 3 incredible rugby matches and definitely bolstered South African Breweries bank account! There is something distinctly special about a Lions tour, 4 countries that play hard against each other every year in the 6 nations coming together…the singing, banter and lifelong friendships that a Lions Tour produces are incredible.

Evidence of this can be seen in the tour gallery on the Living With The Lions website:

http://www.livingwiththelions.co.uk/www/rugby1/2009lionstour/2009GALLERY.html

Please feel free to add your pictures to this group or send them through to us at LWTL to add to the website.

The British and Irish rugby tour to South Africa has seen some excellent and nail-biting rugby. There was controversy with a couple of penalties given against the visitors and a bitter taste left in the mouth when players such as Burger avoided being sent off.

Wherever your allegiances lie, you would have to admit that the Lions deserved to level the series but the game is for 80 minutes and in that time, the Springboks managed to overcome a powerful and determined Lions side.

Lions skipper Paul O’Connell, praised the ‘commitment’ of the British and Irish lads saying that everyone was in the fight together. South African captain John Smit was proud of his team too calling the squad ‘amazing’ which, under the circumstances one cannot deny.

Losing here in Pretoria 28-25 is no disgrace; the Lions were up at half-time by eight points having surprised the Boks with their tenacity in the field. But the hosts wanted it more and the Lions didn’t seem to have anything else to give.

There’s been blood, sweat and O’Gara’s tears on this tour and the South Africans have won the series as the better team.

The British Lions squad to face the Springboks in this year’s Lions rugby tour has been announced and there have been some notable omissions from Wales and Lions coach Warren Gatland’s selection. The biggest shocks are that the captains of England, Scotland and Gatland’s own Wales, Ryan Jones, have all been left out.

Gatland has remained steadfast over his decision to leave Jones out of the squad, claiming his national skipper isn’t in good form and doesn’t deserve a place in the Lions team.

The squad has been picked on form and he is not playing well enough at the moment.

I hope he will take his disappointment on the chin and I am sure he will continue to work hard.

England forward Tom Croft has also been left out of the squad to play against South Africa, and Gatland claims he was closer to being selected than Ryan Jones.

Tom was very, very close. He is a very good athlete, a good line-out forward. He is very, very unlucky I think.

There was serious debate about combinations, experience, players fighting in the trenches if they had to.

We have got a big pack with players we know who are physical but who can also carry the ball.

Of the 37 players selected, almost half of them were from the Welsh side that won the Grand Slam last year, but came up short to Ireland this year.

The last Wales coach to be involved with the British and Irish Lions was Graham Henry, whose involvement is widely believed to have contributed to his downfall as Wales coach as the politics between the home nations’ camps drew him in.

The British and Irish Lions have named South African Breweries as title sponsors for their tour which will be held in South Africa after a record breaking deal of R25-million with SA rugby. This rugby tour of South Africa is to be known as the Castle SA 2009 Lion’s rugby series.

The South African Rugby Association was at the announcement. The President: Oregon Hoskins, Deputy: Mark Alexander, tour coordinator: Andre Homan, Chief Executive of SA rugby: Andy Marinos, former Bok captain: Gary Teichman, Springbok captain: John Smith and also the national coach: Peter de Villiers.

There will be around 50,000 spectators on the tour which would consist of people from Ireland and Britain visiting South Africa during the 3 test match. In addition, there will be a 10 match tour which will be held from May 30th and the projected visitor spend is said to exceed about R1- billion.
Oregon Hoskins said that this Lions rugby tour was like some kind of mini world cup. He also stated that it would probably be one of the best British and Irish Lions tours yet.

We have a number of Falcons travelling with us again and the number is steadily growing just like in 2005. I know many know each other, but some will be new faces. Can we get together and introduce ourselves here - maybe we can meet up at KP for a home game somtime before Xmas????

Welcome to our new Lions supporters chat room. Please keep your eyes on this area as we will from time to time be posting any interesting news regarding our trips here that may be of interest. We are so excited that so many of you have chosen to travel with us next year and we promise that we are already working really hard to make sure it is a trule memorable trip. So why not  get to know your fellow tourists. We already know of 2001 and 2005 supporters that meet up all around the country, so if you are travelling to an away game, why not see who might be there? And if you see Bentos or Robert Jones at the game, well Bentos likes a Guiness and Jonesy a pint of Brains SA!