The 1979 Lions lost just five of 27 games played but the tour marked a significant turning point in the power struggle between Great Britain and Australia.
Britain lost all three Ashes Tests for the first time and in the first Test in Brisbane suffered the ignominy of being nilled for the first time in the long history of matches between the two nations.
The tour seemed to be ill-fated even before the Lions left the UK: the original squad selection featured two wingers, Warrington’s John Bevan and Stuart Wright of Widnes, both of whom had to withdrawn through injury. To add to their woes, Ken Kelly, the Warrington half-back, also pulled out after breaking his jaw two days before departure.
The three players brought in as replacements – Roy Mathias, South Africa-born David Barends and John Holmes – acquitted themselves well on the tour, but could do little to counter Australia’s dominance.
In Brisbane, a Test was played under floodlights for the first time and the Lions looked to be in the dark in every sense as they surrendered to a crushing 35-0 defeat.
The Ashes were gone by the halfway point of the second half when the Lions trailed 17-4, but led by a strong performance by captain George Nicholls – who had stepped into the role to replace the injured Doug Laughton – Britain were at least able to save face and gave their opponents a run for their money before losing 24-16.
However, things took another turn for the worse in the third Test as Australia completed an historic clean sweep by winning 28-2 in front of a meagre SCG crowd of just 16,854.
The Lions’ suffered just one other defeat in Australia, a 19-16 reverse at Toowoomba, and flew across the Tasman to make some amends by winning the three-Test series against New Zealand 2-1.
Featherstone’s Steve Evans, the youngest member of the squad, made most appearances with 19 and was also top try-scorer with 16. John Woods of Warrington contributed 171 points from 12 tries and 68 goals.
Roger Millward of Hull KR featured in his third successive tour and his sixth trip Down Under.
Tour Summary
| Played | 27 |
| Won21 | |
| Drawn | 1 |
| Lost | 5 |
| For | |
|---|---|
| Tries | 114 |
| Goals | 107 |
| Points | 559 |
| Against | |
| Tries | 54 |
| Goals | 80 |
| Points | 322 |