The 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa was an international rugby union tour which took place in South Africa from May to July 2009.
The British and Irish Lions played a three-match Test series against South Africa, with matches in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg. South Africa won the Test series, defeating the Lions 26–21 in the first Test, and then 28–25 in the second Test. The third Test was won by the Lions 28–9.
The highlight of the series was the second Test, which the Lions had led until the 76th minute, when they fell 25–22 behind. Two minutes later, Stephen Jones slotted a penalty to draw the sides at 25–25 with only two minutes left on the clock. However, two minutes into injury time, Morne Steyn scored a 52m penalty kick, to win the match at 28–25.
The tour started with games against six provincial teams, the Lions winning all six. The Lions also played one game against South Africa's A team, the Emerging Springboks, which was drawn at 13–13.
The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup took place in South Africa during this tour, between 14 June and 28 June, using many of the same stadia. The tour followed the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand and precedes the 2013 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
Read more about 2009 British And Irish Lions Tour To South Africa: Background, Results, Lions Squad, Lions Management, Statistics
Famous quotes containing the words british, irish, lions, tour, south and/or africa:
“Gorgonised me from head to foot,
With a stony British stare.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“But Irish had an old soul, you might say. He was a man with a great future behind him, already.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and oxen would draw them to look like oxen, and each would make the gods bodies have the same shape as they themselves had.”
—Xenophanes (c. 570–478 B.C.)
“Left Washington, September 6, on a tour through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.... Absent nineteen days. Received every where heartily. The country is again one and united! I am very happy to be able to feel that the course taken has turned out so well.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“In the far South the sun of autumn is passing
Like Walt Whitman walking along a ruddy shore.
He is singing and chanting the things that are part of him,
The worlds that were and will be, death and day.
Nothing is final, he chants. No man shall see the end.
His beard is of fire and his staff is a leaping flame.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
““I’ll love you dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)