How ‘The Battle of Ballymore’ was sparked by a simple question with the Lions winning ‘170-odd stitches to three’
British and Irish Lions legend Dean Richards speaks about 'The Battle of Ballymore'.
When the British & Irish Lions faced Australia in the second Test of the 1989 tour, the match went down in rugby folklore for its sheer brutality.
‘The Battle of Ballymore’, as the Australian press aptly named it, was a bloody affair which featured several explosive brawls that are still talked about to this day.
Dean Richards – never one to take a backward step – fondly remembers a tumultuous encounter in Brisbane which saw the Lions prevail 19-12 to level the series.
Sir Ian McGeechan’s side then won the third Test in Sydney to become the first Lions side to win a series after losing the opening Test.
Bitterly disappointed
But after a 30-12 defeat in the first Test, the mood amongst the Lions’ squad was sombre.
The tourists had won all six warm-up matches and ex-Leicester number eight Richards tells Planet Rugby: “We were just bitterly disappointed at losing that first Test.
“We had gone everywhere around Australia making a statement, beating all the provincial sides and Australia B.
“They fielded virtually Test teams against us – just to try and soften us up going into the first Test.
“I think we got over-confident and didn’t turn up on the day… and we got absolutely thumped.
“In the changing room afterwards there was complete silence for hours.
“Nobody wanted to say anything; nobody did say anything.”
Three days later, the Lions went to Canberra and beat the Brumbies 41-25.
The Brumbies took an early lead, and sensed an upset, but the Lions’ class gradually told.
“I think we scored 30 to 35 unanswered points in the second half and that win just set the tone for the week,” adds 62-year-old Richards.
“It meant every spot was up for grabs going into the second Test because the team wasn’t announced until the Thursday.
“Every training session, you had to be right on your game to get your spot for the weekend.
“If you’re not, then you shouldn’t really be there and that’s what the British & Irish Lions is all about.
“That breeds a competitive edge within the team but also a winning mentality.”
And so to Brisbane’s Ballymore Stadium, where a much-changed Lions team were spoiling for a fight.
French referee
French referee Rene Hourquet had the unenviable task of officiating the second and third Tests.
Richards says: “Hourquet stayed in the same hotel as us – God knows why they put him there – and at the time France was a brutal place to play rugby with a number of deaths on the field due to acts of violence.
“We saw Rene in the hotel lift and said ‘how are you going to approach this game?’ and he replied ‘I’ll referee it as I referee in France’.
“As soon as we heard that, we knew we could be as physical as we wanted.”
Men such as Richards, Brian Moore, Paul Ackford, Wade Dooley and Mike Teague were certainly no shrinking violets and the Lions, captained by Finlay Calder, won with tries from Gavin Hastings and Jeremy Guscott.
McGeechan pulled a stroke of genius in introducing Guscott, the youngest player in the squad, into the midfield for his Lions Test debut.
Richards revelled in the physicality of the contest as vicious fighting broke out early on after Welsh scrum-half Robert Jones stood on Australia captain Nick Farr-Jones’ foot.
“The punch-ups started in the second minute and continued until the last minute,” recalls Richards with a wry smile.
“And the stitch count was probably the most important thing on the day.
“I think we won by 170-odd stitches to three and I was the only Lions player with those three stitches in my lip!
“I might have got caught by Brian Moore trying to kick somebody, but I’m not sure.
“I can remember after the game, we went to the reception and Nick Farr-Jones stood up and was absolutely battered.
“Robert Jones had done a bit of a job on him and, looking around the room, we saw the Australia boys with black eyes, split faces and broken noses.
“The one thing they said afterwards was ‘this isn’t rugby’.
“We just looked at them and said ‘well, same referee next week, chaps’.”
The frenzied reaction to the Wallabies’ defeat by the Australian media featured a scandalous newspaper report which referred to the three policemen in the Lions pack – Richards, Dooley and Ackford.
It read: ‘They did to the Wallabies what they do to Pakistanis and punks back home’.
“That was the nature of the abuse we received,” reflects Richards.
“After the first Test they were calling us pussycats and then, after the second Test, it was a complete reversal, which was quite ironic in a lot of ways but typical of the Australian media.
“Personally, I take a huge amount of satisfaction from what we achieved.
Lasting memory
“It’s right up there with the birth of your children and the major experiences that you have in your life.
“The friendships that were formed stay with you forever.”
The Lions won the third Test 19-18 back in Sydney to clinch a series win that remains iconic some 36 years on.
“The third Test wasn’t as brutal as the second Test,” says Richards, a hugely influential figure who played in all three Tests.
“Thankfully, David Campese cocked up on his own line to allow Ieuan Evans to score.
“After that second Test, we never felt we were going to lose the third Test – whatever happened.
“We were so confident and people tend to forget that Australia became world champions two years later in 1991.
“They had a hell of a side and we were literally thrown into the lion’s den in 1989.”
As the game was still amateur, players had to take unpaid leave to go on tour.
Ex-England captain Richards admits: “If the police had turned round to me and said ‘we won’t allow you to go’ then I’d have probably resigned.
“It was very different to today. There are rumours now about the boys getting up to £100,000 for the tour and good luck to them.
“I think we got 14 dollars a day for a telephone allowance!
“There was no payment, I had taken unpaid leave to go on tour and other guys did likewise.
“It was just the way it was in those days – it was amateur, but we didn’t quibble about it.
“We just thought it was a complete honour to be there.
“Looking back, it was one of the best rugby experiences of my life.”
Richards is rooting for another Lions series win down under ahead of Saturday’s second Test in Melbourne.
He added: “I think we could win the series 3-0 but I’d settle for 2-1.”