Heritage Spotlight - Wallabies v British & Irish Lions – Jersey evolution

The current British & Irish Lions tour is the twelfth to Australia, although 1888, 1908 and 1971 did not include test matches. In the test matches many think its always been the traditional Lions ‘red’ v Wallaby ‘gold’.

This has been the case for the last five Lions tours, 1966 onwards, however a multitude of jerseys have been worn, by both sides since the first the tests in 1899.

Looking at these tests – on the 1899 tour the Lions wore ‘red, white and blue’ hooped jersey as described in this silk programme from their game v Metropolitan (i.e. Sydney). Interestingly the side was called ‘English team’ in the 1899 programmes.

1899 Slik Programme - Rugby Australia Collection

In the 1920s Lions side bore a dark blue jersey, which they wore in Australia and New Zealand in 1930. TRCF collection has one of these rare jerseys with the distinctive ‘3 golden lions’ badge.

Controversially the dark blue jersey necessitated the ‘All Blacks’ to wear white for the first time for their matches across the Tasman.

The red jersey was adopted for the 1950 tour and remained very similar in 1966 and 1989 all with the now familiar ‘Four Nations’ badge. Umbro made Lions jersey shown.

In 2001 the Lion’s literally entered the new ‘millennium’ as the jersey bore a sponsor’s logo and the Adidas maker’s logo and distinctive ‘3-stripes’.

What of the Wallabies? In 1899 the national side wore sky-blue in Sydney and maroon in Brisbane. For the 1930 series the new green jerseys, which had been adopted the year before, was seen. These jerseys were worn for the 1950 and 1959 series also.

In 1966 the plain gold jersey with white collar, first worn in 1961 was unveiled for the Lions.

The 1989 series retained the plain gold jersey, but the collar was now green for the first time.

The 2001 Wallaby jersey had radically changed, while the white collar was traditional, the hooped green and white to the selves was a recent addition, as was the red sponsors logo across the front.

In 2013 the long-term sponsor Qantas’ logo adorned the jersey, which was still all gold, but with green on half of the ‘chinese’ collar’ and a green swish across the left breast above the Coat of Arms.

Both teams have evolved their colours and designs across the 126 years of battle.

The Rugby Club Foundation collection spans the three centuries of Australian Rugby history and is an important treasure trove of rugby memorabilia.

Prepared by Michael Fahey - TRCF Heritage Coordinator