1899 British Lions tour to Australia
| 1899 British Lions Tour to Australia | |
|---|---|
| Date | 14 June – 19 August |
| Coach(es) | Matthew Mullineux |
| Tour captain(s) |
 Matthew Mullineux Frank Stout
|
| Test series winners | British and Irish Lions (1–3) |
| Top test point scorer(s) |
Charlie Adamson (17) |
The 1899 British Isles tour to Australia was the fourth rugby union tour by a British Isles team and the second to Australia; though the first tour in 1888 was a private venture, making the 1899 tour the first official undertaking of Australia. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 1950.
Negotiations had also taken place for the tour to incorporate matches against New Zealand, either through a visit to New Zealand, or a New Zealand team to play in Australia. No agreeable terms could be found.
This tour was the first to truly represent the British Isles, with players from all four Home Nations. Despite this fact, many Australian newspapers, and some British dailies, referred to the tourists as "the English football team".
After the tour of South Africa in 1896, players in Britain expressed wishes to make a similar tour to Australia. In August 1897, the New South Wales Rugby Football Union (NSWRFU), received a letter from Reverend Matthew Mullineux asking whether a tour beginning in June 1898 would be possible and welcomed by the Union. This request was discussed in depth by the NSWRFU at their 30 September meeting, and it was decided to extend an invitation with the following stipulations. The tour was to be under the auspices of the Rugby Football Union (RFU), with the touring team paying for passage to and from Sydney. The NSWRFU would pay for their internal expenses once in Australia. The British team was to receive a percentage of the profits earned by the attendance at each match, but only up to the cost of their travel. Some debate centred about what level of reimbursement would be allowed, they settled on fifty percent after the initial proposal of twenty percent was deemed too low. They specified that a playing squad be made up of twenty-one players inclusive of the tour manager. They would play two games a week while on tour, in New South Wales, Queensland, and New Zealand. There was also the possibility that the tour would take in Victoria.
The proposal was sanctioned by the RFU, with the strict stipulation that the tour would take place on a purely amateur basis. It was the plan of Mullineux to fill the team with players from the Universities, but the timing of the tour meant that players would need to leave Britain in early May, when vacation had not yet begun. Due to a lack of time to make the necessary arrangements, the tour for 1898 was subsequently cancelled.
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