Author: Jer McLachlan
The British and Irish Lions captain is an iconic role in a rugby, but being a successful one is challenging and rare. Read more on the history and politics of selecting a Lions captain, and how a once-in-a-lifetime honour can quickly turn into a disaster.
In an article in the Independent newspaper of 6 April 1997 Chris Rea remarks that “[t]hose who argue that the captain’s job on Lions tours involve little more than breezing along to a press conference, spouting a few witticisms at the after-match functions and delivering some passionate words before taking the field have no conception of the relentless pressures on a touring captain. Nor do they know their history. The experience has broken more than one heart and, given a second chance, Michael Campbell-Lamerton, Phil Bennett and Ciaran Fitzgerald would, in all probability, refuse it.”1
The three men Rea mentions in the article referred to above were the captains of the 1966 Lions touring team to Australia and New Zealand, the 1977 Lions touring team to New Zealand, and the 1983 Lions touring team to New Zealand. From the results of the Test matches played on these tours, it is quite clear why they would not relish repeating the experience of being the captain of a badly beaten Lions side.
Although the 1966 Lions won both Tests against Australia, they were the first Lions team to lose all four Test matches against New Zealand. The 1977 Lions lost three of their four Test matches, while the 1983 Lions became the second Lions team to be whitewashed in the four Test matches played.
1966 Controversy: Campbell-Lamerton’s Appointment and the Welsh Disappointment
The appointment of Campbell-Lamerton as captain of the 1966 British and Irish Lions was the first time in the Lions’ history that the choice of the captain of a Lions touring team caused a high degree of controversy. At the time, the administrators, players and supporters of Wales had been waiting for a long time to see a Welshman as captain of a British and Irish Lions touring team. Although the Lions were captained by Welshmen in Tests during the tours of 1950 and 1955, no Welshmen have ever been captain of a representative British and Irish touring team. The British team that toured in Australia and New Zealand under the captaincy of the Welshman A.F. Harding in 1908 consisted of players coming from Wales and England only.
In 1966, the rugby press was sure that Alun Pask would be chosen as captain of the Lions. Even before the start of the 1966 Five Nations Championship, the banner heading in the South Wales Argus of 15 January 1966 proclaimed: PASK TO LEAD LIONS? The article listed the attributes that would make Pask the ideal man to lead the Lions and remarked that he, “amongst all the Welsh internationals, is the one most likely to receive the support of the other home unions”. As the season progressed, the newspapers speculated that the only other possible candidate for the Lions captaincy might be the Irish captain Ray McLoughlin. When McLoughlin was stripped of the Irish captaincy after three tests in the Five Nations Championship, the feeling was that Pask was the only viable candidate left to lead the Lions.
Ironically, McLoughlin’s demotion was shortly followed by Wales losing 9-6 to Ireland, causing doubts to be raised whether Pask was indeed the right man for the job. Prior to the Test match, speaking on television, Pask boldly stated that Wales was superior to Ireland in every department. Not surprisingly, the Irish Independent newspaper seized on this indiscretion after the Welsh defeat, declaring that Pask’s chances of becoming Lions captain had been dealt a blow. This view was confirmed in an article in the Daily Mirror of 21 March 1966, published after the announcement of the Lions squad and captain, where it was stated that Pask was the red-hot favourite to captain the Lions “until that shock Irish win”.
It appears that Pask’s remarks prior to the Ireland Test and the reaction of the Irish press may have convinced the Lions selectors that Pask might not be the right person to captain the Lions. Consequently, they decided to appoint Mike Campbell-Lamerton, who had not captained Scotland since February 1965, to lead the Lions. However, according to the Liverpool Echo newspaper of 26 March 1966, there were good reasons why the choice of Campbell-Lamerton as captain was not as odd as it seemed. Although Campbell-Lamerton was admittedly not such an astute tactical leader on the field as Pask, captaincy of a Lions touring team encompasses much more than just on-field nous.
The newspaper points out that the Lions captain must be able to deal with the differing temperaments of squad members who may react differently to the pressures of a long and arduous tour, and asserts that Campbell-Lamerton’s amiable personality enabled him to deal with such situations. Also, Campbell-Lamerton had the right diplomatic skills to deal with all the officials and functions that would be encountered on the tour.
Unfortunately, these attributes of Campbell-Lamerton did not help the Lions when they faced New Zealand in the Test matches. Following the defeat by 17 points in the first Test Match, Campbell-Lamerton made himself unavailable for selection for the second Test due to his loss of form.2 Interestingly, Campbell-Lamerton was not replaced by Pask as captain of the Test team but by another Welshman, David Watkins. Campbell-Lamerton returned as captain for the third Test match, but after another heavy defeat was again replaced as captain by Watkins in the final Test match.
1983 Debacle: Fitzgerald, Politics, and Selection Mistakes
The 1983 tour to New Zealand followed a similar but even more disastrous pattern. The choice of Ciaran Fitzgerald as captain was based on his being the captain of the Irish team that won the Triple Crown and shared the Five Nations Championship with France. Tony Ward, who played fly-half for Ireland from 1978 to 1987, declares unequivocally that Fitzgerald was the most complete captain he played under. He describes Fitzgerald as the consummate team leader who would never demand anything more from his players than what he himself was willing to give. Notwithstanding this admirable leadership trait, Fitzgerald is remembered as one of the most unfortunate choices for captain of a Lions touring team.
Even before the tour began, there was an outcry about the appointment of Fitzgerald as captain. Colin Cameron, writing in the Hull Daily Mail of 26 March 1983, pulled no punches in ridiculing the choice of Fitzgerald as captain of the Lions. His criticism was not based on Fitzgerald’s qualities as captain but focused on his abilities as a player, remarking that Fitzgerald was arguably the worst hooker amongst the hookers playing for the four Home countries at the time. He compares Fitzgerald to Peter Wheeler who was “by common consent the best hooker in Britain by a long way and is reckoned by most rugby experts in New Zealand and South Africa to be the best in the world”.
Despite this high praise, Wheeler was not included in the Lions tour party, but on tour, it soon transpired that Fitzgerald was under considerable pressure for his Test spot from the Scot Colin Deans. Unfortunately, Fitzgerald, who was part of the selection committee on tour, did not follow Campbell-Lamerton’s example after the defeat in the first Test. Jim Telfer, who was the coach of the Lions on the 1983 tour, remarks that although he wanted to promote Deans to the Test team in place of Fitzgerald, he was outvoted by the manager Willie-John McBride and Fitzgerald. When the Test series was eventually lost 0 to 4, Fitzgerald was made the scapegoat for the loss.
It appears that the mistakes made when choosing the captains for the 1966 and 1983 Lions touring teams may be attributed to the selection committee system that was in place in the years from 1950 to 1993. In these years, the management of the Lions teams, which after 1966 included the coach of the team, did not have a say in the choice of the captain or the squad. The team and captain were selected by a committee on which all four Home Unions were represented. In Lions of England, Brian Moore voices his disapproval of the political infighting and trade-offs that took place within the selection committee.3
Another contributing factor was that these selection committees did not see their way open to choose a captain who had not previously captained their Home nation. The omission of Wheeler from the 1983 Lions team was blamed on the England selectors, who had not appointed Wheeler as England captain when Billy Beaumont retired in 1982. Cameron remarks that the Lions selectors did not consider it wise to appoint Wheeler as captain of the Lions when the England selectors did not regard him as a suitable captain for England. His total omission from the squad, however, remains a mystery.
A New Era: The head coaches take control
From 1997 onwards, the Lions’ head coaches have been included in the Lions’ selection committees. Four head coaches have been on the seven Lions tours since 1997: Sir Ian McGeechan in 1997 and 2009, Graham Henry in 2001, Sir Clive Woodward in 2005, and Warren Gatland in 2013, 2017, and 2021. These head coaches played a decisive role in appointing the captains for these tours.
In 1997, McGeechan was no longer bound by the idea that only players who have captained their Home nations should be eligible to captain the Lions. He wanted strong, intimidating individuals who were tough and uncompromising and not troubled by thoughts of failure. Martin Johnson fitted this mould perfectly. The fact that he had only recently assumed the captaincy of his clubside Leicester and had not captained England in a Test match did not carry any weight with McGeechan.
It is interesting to note that in 2009, when McGeechan was again the head coach for the Lions team to tour South Africa, he adopted the same approach to choosing his captain. He chose Paul O’Connell to captain the Lions over the current Ireland captain, Brian O’Driscoll, who was the previous Lions captain, and also captained Ireland to their first Grand Slam in 61 years in the 2009 Six Nations Championship. In the Daily Telegraph of 24 March 2009, Mick Cleary remarked that “O’Connell is a big man very much in the physical mould of Johnson in 1997. McGeechan was taken with the notion then of a looming presence knocking on the dressing-room door for the coin toss.” Hugh Godwin quotes McGeechan in The Independent of 19 April 2009 as saying that he prefers a forward as captain.
McGeechan continues saying that the word that comes to his mind when thinking of his captain is respect. He remarks that Martin Johnson was somebody who had presence, and he felt that, particularly in South Africa, that was important. Although the 2009 Lions narrowly failed to repeat the triumph of the 1997 Lions, it was not because McGeechan erred in his choice of captains. In choosing Johnson and O’Connel as his captains, McGeechan showed wonderful insight into what was required to overcome the physical threat of the Springboks on their home turf.
Another Lions captain success story was to follow in 2013, albeit in a more roundabout way. At the start of the 2013 Six Nations Championship, Sam Warburton, captain of Wales, was considered to be the long-term favourite to captain the 2013 British and Irish Lions on their tour to Australia. This assessment was based on Wales’ performances in the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Wales’ Grand Slam in the 2012 Six Nations Championship.
However, since the 2012 Grand Slam victory, Wales had suffered seven consecutive Test match losses, with Warburton captaining them in six of these losses. To make matters worse, Wales lost the first match in the 2013 Six Nations Championship against Ireland, and he sustained a shoulder injury that kept him out of the next match against France. Wales started to turn things around with a 16-6 victory against the French, under the leadership of Ryan Jones. Warburton was on the bench when Wales next beat Italy, and although he regained his starting place for the match against Scotland, Ryan Jones retained the captaincy.
At this stage of the Championship, the media concluded that Warburton’s chances to captain the Lions had almost disappeared, and Chris Robshaw, captain of the unbeaten England, was the favourite to captain the Lions. With Ryan Jones out of the running due to an injury suffered against Scotland, the expectation was that Warburton would return as captain for the final clash against England. However, the captaincy was handed to Gethin Jenkins, who led Wales to a resounding 30-3 victory, shattering England’s Grand Slam dreams and claiming the Championship for Wales.
Notwithstanding Warburton’s disrupted Six Nations campaign, Warren Gatland, the head coach of the 2013 Lions, chose him to lead the Lions Down Under. One of the attributes which made Warburton the right choice is the manner in which he communicated with the match officials during a match. Warburton had a particularly good working relationship with the referee Craig Joubert. Mick Cleary remarked that this relationship was of particular importance since Joubert was the referee in the crucial second Test of the series. Warburton, in combination with Alun Wyn Jones, who was captain in the third Test match, led the Lions to a 2-1 series victory over the Wallabies, to date their only successful tour this century.
Experienced coaches like McGeechan and Gatland knew that the events in the Five or Six Nations Championship prior to a Lions tour would have little or no bearing on the Test matches that the Lions would be playing against their Southern Hemisphere opponents. Consequently, they identified the leaders that they believed would be the best able to handle the circumstances that they would face on tour.
Andy Farrell, who was part of the coaching team on that successful tour in 2013, will do well to consider the many lessons learnt by his predecessors, often at a high price. History beckons for this British and Irish Lions touring squad; whichever group of players get on the plane to Australia will be full of talented, experienced players, primed to repeat the success of 12 years ago. Picking the right captain is crucial, and whoever Farrel goes with, be it Maro Itoje, Caelen Doris (injury permitting) or another leader figure, will be an important factor in this squad realising their potential or not.
The Rugby Historian 
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