1906 South Africa rugby union tour

The 1906–07 South Africa tour of Britain, Ireland and France was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the South Africa national rugby union team against the four British Home Nation teams. The tour also took in several matches against British and Irish club, county and invitational teams before finally travelling to France to play the national team.

This was the inaugural South Africa tour and is recognised as the event that coined the phrase Springboks as a nickname for the South African team.

The 1906 Springboks were "the first national team to utilize the 3–4–1 formation".

The tour was extremely successful for the South Africans which helped garner respect from the Northern Hemisphere teams and established South Africa as a formidable rugby playing country. In the tests played the team would only lose to Scotland and drew against England. The South African defeat of Wales was a shock to many critics and ended the international careers of some of the greatest Welsh players of the time. Out of 29 matches played, South Africa won 26, lost two and drew one.

Devon: F Lillicrapp (Albion), AJR Roberts (Exeter), J. Schulz (R.N. College, Dartmouth), De Smidt (Plymouth), F SCott (Bristol), R Jago (Albion), J Peters (Plymouth), W Mills (Albion), SG Williams, (Albion), J Cummings (Albion), EW Roberts (R.N. College, Dartmouth), TS Kelly (London Harlequins), GD Roberts (Exeter), Dix (R.N. College, Dartmouth), G Farr, (Torquay)

South Africa: AF Marsberg, JD Krige, JA Loubser, FJ Dobbin, P Roos (capt.), WA Burger, PA le Roux, DJ Brink, WC Martheze, JWE Raaff, WS Morkel, JG Hirsch, A Stegmann, HW Carolin, DF Morkel

The South African match against Devon is noted for events that occurred before the game began. On the day Devon fielded England international James Peters, the first black player to be capped for his country. On learning they would be facing a black player, the South Africans refused to take to the field. The South African High Commissioner, who was in the crowd, approached the Springboks and successfully persuaded them to play.

Newport: Dai Boots, Reg Plummer, WH Gunstone, S Adams, WR Thomas, Walter Martin, Tommy Vile, Charlie Pritchard capt., Edwin Thomas Maynard, Jehoida Hodges, William Dowell, Ernie Jenkins, H Davies, Harry Wetter, George Boots

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