Will Friday’s match against Argentina in Dublin be the Lions’ first game on home soil?
On Friday evening, the British & Irish Lions take on Argentina at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. As well as being a first chance for Andy Farrell’s 2025 squad to pull on those famous red jerseys, it will be the team’s first ever match in Ireland.
But it won’t be the Lions’ inaugural match on home turf. In fact, despite being primarily a touring side, assembled every few years to take on the southern hemisphere’s finest, the Lions have played in the UK on several occasions – even though most of those encounters haven’t been full Tests.
Here’s a brief history of the British & Irish Lions in the UK and Ireland.
Read more: How to watch the British & Irish Lions in 2025
When have the British & Irish Lions played in the UK or Ireland?
The first match the British Lions (as they were then known) ever played in the United Kingdom or Ireland was technically an away match. They were the guests of Cardiff RFC for a game at the Arms Park on 22 September 1951, organised to celebrate the Welsh club’s 75th anniversary.
The Lions won 14-12, though had to do it without their Cardiff contingent. Bizarrely, the Lions also played a Wales XV after their 1955 tour to South Africa was done, running out 20-17 winners, again at the Arms Park.
Neither of these teams were technically the Lions, however. The first officially endorsed British & Irish Lions team to play in the UK turned out for a Twickenham clash with the Barbarians in 1977, arranged to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee.
The Lions, who had just toured New Zealand, had to face a few of their past legends (including Gareth Edwards, Gerald Davies and JPR Williams) but won 23-14.
Related: All the British & Irish Lions fixtures in one place
The political tensions of the apartheid era meant that the Lions’ planned 1986 tour to South Africa was abandoned. But they did play a single match that April, in which they literally took on the world.
Arranged to celebrate the centenary of the International Rugby Football Board (now World Rugby), the British & Irish Lions v “The Rest” took place at Cardiff Arms Park. Planet Earth selected an impressive XV, including France’s Serge Blanco, New Zealand’s John Kirwan and Wayne Smith, and Australia’s Michael Lynagh and Nick Farr-Jones. They beat the Lions 15-7.
Although it would be nearly two decades before the Lions again ran out at home, an unofficial “Four Home Unions” team (the Lions in all but name) took on the Rest of Europe at Twickenham in April 1990. The Skilball Trophy was arranged to raise money for Romania following the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, and the Four Home Unions ran out 43-18 winners.
The Lions previously hosted the Pumas in Cardiff in 2005 (David Rogers/Getty Images)
The British & Irish Lions returned to Cardiff in 2005 for their first ever match at the Millennium Stadium. Argentina came to town for a warm-up match ahead of that summer’s tour to New Zealand, with the match finishing as a 25-25 draw.
Sixteen years later, the Lions hosted Japan at Murrayfield. The home team won 28-10 before flying out to South Africa for the 2021 tour.
What is the Lions’ record in home matches?
The British & Irish Lions’ record on home soil (including official and unofficial matches) is currently played seven, won five, drawn one, lost one – but if you’re going to lose to anybody, it might as well be an entire planet.
Do home British & Irish Lions matches count as full Tests?
This is a surprisingly complicated question to answer. For example, players who turned out against “The Rest” in 1986 were retrospectively awarded caps in 2018, while the 2005 match against Argentina always counted as a full Test.
However, the Lions board confirmed in November 2021 that the team’s warm-up game against Japan earlier that year was not actually a full Test.
They explained that, “the criteria going forwards will be that Lions Test status will only be awarded to those matches played against the host union’s national representative side (except in exceptional circumstances, to be determined by the board at the appropriate time).”
Hence, the Murrayfield match didn’t count towards Alun Wyn Jones’ record-breaking haul of 170 international caps, and Friday’s match against Argentina will not be considered a Test.
Read more: You guide on how to watch every minute of the British & Irish Lions tour of Australia
Have the British & Irish Lions ever played in France?
Yes, but only once.
In 1989 an unofficial British & Irish Lions XV played an exhibition match against a French XV to mark the 200th anniversary of the French revolution. Coming off the back of their Test series victory over Australia, the Lions won 29-27 at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
But this highly anticipated fixture could happen again. Earlier this year the Telegraph reported that the British & Irish Lions were in talks with the Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR) regarding the women’s and men’s teams playing France ahead of their tours to New Zealand in 2027 and 2029, respectively. Hopefully both matches come to pass, because they’d surely be a spectacle fans on both sides of the Channel would love to see.
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