The 1946 Great Britain Lions tour was a tour by the Great Britain national rugby league team of Australia and New Zealand which took place between April and August 1946. The tour involved a schedule of 27 games: 20 in Australia including a three-test series against Australia for the Ashes, and a further 7 in New Zealand including one test match against New Zealand.

Captained by Gus Risman, the Lions returned home having won 21, drawn 1 and lost 5 of their games. The team lost the test match against New Zealand but in winning the Ashes against Australia 2–0 (with one match drawn) they became the only Great Britain team to date to be unbeaten in a Test series against Australia in Australia.

Despite being a British team – 11 of the squad were Welsh – the team played, and were often referred to by both the press at home and away, as England. The team became known by the nickname The Indomitables due to their travelling to Australia on-board the aircraft carrier .

The tour was the first major sporting series played abroad by a British side in any sport after the Second World War.

Background In September 1945 the Australian Minister for External Affairs, H. V. Evatt issued an invitation to the Rugby Football League (RFL) to send a team to Australia during the summer of 1946. The RFL were at first unsure about accepting due to the state of the game in Britain after the war but after consulting with the clubs, the offer was accepted on a 19–4 vote in October 1945 subject to suitable travelling arrangements being made.

The issue of transport to Australia almost resulted in the tour being cancelled; the travel arrangements were the responsibility of the Australian authorities who were unable to find passage on a commercial ship. As late as the beginning of March 1946 there was a likelihood that the tour would not go ahead. Eventually the Australian High Commission in London arranged transport on the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, the first time a rugby league team had travelled by warship.

Travel to and from New Zealand was also an issue. Again the shortage of commercial shipping was the problem and in June the New Zealand leg of the tour was in jeopardy because of the unavailability of a ship back to Britain until the end of August. Arrangements were made for some of the squad to fly to Auckland from Sydney before the third test against Australia with the rest flying after the third test, and berths were found on the RMS Rangitiki.

Squad On previous tours it had been the practice for every playing position to be duplicated in player selection to cover for injuries but this practice was not followed for this tour, with 15 backs and only 11 forwards selected, including five centres and only three prop-forwards. The 26 man squad was announced in March 1946. Appointed captain was Salford Gus Risman with Widnes Tommy McCue as vice-captain. Risman and McCue were the only members of the squad who had been on the previous tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1936. The tour was one of the first to use squad numbering rather than position numbering.

+ Backs Squad number Name Club s1 Martin Ryan Wigan2 Joe Jones Barrow Threequarters s3 Eric Batten Bradford Northern4 Jimmy Lewthwaite Barrow s10 Arthur Bassett Halifax11 Albert Johnson Warrington s5 Gus Risman Salford 6 Ernest Ward Bradford Northern7 Ted Ward Wigan8 Bryn Knowelden Barrow9 Jack Kitching Bradford Northern Half-backs s12 Willie Horne Barrow13 Willie Davies Bradford Northern s14 Tommy McCue Widnes15 Dai Jenkins Leeds

+ Forwards Squad number Name Club Front row s19 Joe Egan Wigan20 George Curran Salford s16 Frank Whitcombe Bradford Northern17 Fred Hughes Workington18 Ken Gee Wigan Back row s21 Bob Nicholson Huddersfield22 Doug Phillips Oldham23 Les White York24 Trevor Foster Bradford Northern s25 Harry Murphy Wakefield Trinity26 Ike Owens Leeds

The team manager was W. Poppleton of Bramley and W. Gabbatt of Barrow was the business manager. W. Crockford of Hull Kingston Rovers represented the Rugby Football League Council, although he was not officially a member of the squad management and was paying his own way.

Following the announcement of the squad the Rugby Football League (RFL) entered into discussions with the War Office over leave of absence for White, Phillips and Ernie Ward as all three were still serving soldiers. Initially the War Office refused permission for White and Phillips, but following representations to the Secretary of State for War, Jack Lawson, the decision was overturned within 24 hours and permission given for the three to tour. Had permission not been granted the RFL had already identified replacements; R. Robson of Huddersfield for Phillips, E. Watkins of Wigan for White and S. Rookes of Hunslet for Ward.

Each player was paid 30/- shillings per week at sea and 50/- per week on land with their wives receiving £3 per week and 7/6 (seven shillings and six pence) per child.

The tour was also the first with an official press presence. Three British news reporters, Ernest Crawthorne of the Manchester Evening News, Alfred Drewery of The Yorkshire Post and Eddie Waring of the Sunday Pictorial all accompanied the team on the voyage and around Australia and New Zealand. Once in Australia they were joined by Australian journalist, Harry Sunderland.

Schedule and results The squad sailed from Devonport on 3 April 1946 and arrived in Fremantle on 30 April. Indomitable was supposed to continue to Sydney but for operational reasons the voyage was curtailed at Fremantle. The team as well as a large number of navy personnel and returning Australian and New Zealand soldiers were disembarked and travelled by train across Australia, leaving Fremantle on 8 May and arriving in Sydney on 12 May.

Prior to leaving Fremantle the squad played an exhibition match, fulfilling a commitment made to the captain of the Indomitable during the voyage; splitting into two teams, McCue's "Reds" beat Risman's "Blues" 24–5. A collection for naval charities raised £44 to which the RFL added £10/10.

Date Opponents Venue Score (GB first) Attendance Notes 22 May Southern Districts Junee style="text-align: center;" 6,135 Southern Districts was the representative team for clubs in Group 9 of the New South Wales Country Rugby League 29 May Group 8 Rugby League Manuka Oval, Canberra style="text-align: center;" 5,095 1 June New South Wales Sydney Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 51,364 2 June South Coast Division The Showground, Wollongong style="text-align: center;" 12,000 South Coast Division was a representative team for clubs in the Illawarra Rugby League 8 June New South Wales Sydney Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 47,431 12 June Western Districts Orange style="text-align: center;" 8,318 Western Districts was the representative team for clubs in Group 10 of the New South Wales country rugby league 15 June Newcastle The Sports Ground, Newcastle style="text-align: center;" 17,134 17 June Australia Sydney Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 64,527 19 June Northern Districts Tamworth Oval, Tamworth style="text-align: center;" 7,270 Northern District was the representative tea for clubs in Group 4 of the New South Wales country rugby league 22 June Queensland Brisbane Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 21,500 25 June Wide Bay Bundaberg style="text-align: center;" 6,356 27 June Central Queensland Rockhampton style="text-align: center;" 7,070 30 June North Queensland Townsville style="text-align: center;" 7,567 2 July Mackay Mackay style="text-align: center;" 5,044 Mackay was the representative team for clubs in the Mackay & District Rugby League. The score set a new record for a touring side against a representative team. 6 July Australia Brisbane Exhibition Ground style="text-align: center;" 40,500 9 July Brisbane Firsts Brisbane Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 15,722 11 July Ipswich Ipswich style="text-align: center;" 5,200 13 July Toowoomba Toowoomba style="text-align: center;" 9,863 Before the game started the roof of a building at the ground collapsed due to over 200 people standing on it in an attempt to see the game. One person was injured in the collapse and was taken to hospital. 16 July North Coast The Showground, Grafton style="text-align: center;" 6,955 North Coast was the representative team for clubs in Group 2 and Group 3 of the NSW Country Rugby League 20 July Australia Sydney Cricket Ground style="text-align: center;" 35,294

The third test was the final match of the Australian leg of the tour. To transfer to New Zealand it had been arranged for the team to fly, the size of the aircraft involved made it necessary for the party to travel by three separate flights from Rose Bay Water Airport on 22, 23 and 24 July.

Date Opponents Venue Score (GB first) Attendance Notes 24 July South Island Christchurch style="text-align: center;" 8,000 27 July West Coast Victoria Park, Greymouth style="text-align: center;" 4,000 31 July Māori Wellington style="text-align: center;" 10,000 3 August Auckland Carlaw Park, Auckland style="text-align: center;" 18,000 6 August South Auckland Huntly style="text-align: center;" 3,000 10 August New Zealand Carlaw Park, Auckland style="text-align: center;" 11,000 12 August Auckland Carlaw Park, Auckland style="text-align: center;" 12,400

The team sailed for home on 14 August on-board RMS Rangitiki arriving at Tilbury on 24 September.

Ashes series Test venues The three Ashes series tests took place at the following venues.

Sydney Brisbane Sydney Cricket Ground Brisbane Exhibition Ground Capacity: 70,000 Capacity: 42,000

First test

The first test was played at Sydney Cricket Ground on 17 June 1946. Queues to get into the ground started the previous evening and by 7:30am on the morning of the test the Australian authorities felt it necessary to open the gates to the ground several hours early and by 11:30am the ground was full.

The game kicked off as scheduled and England took an early lead as Willie Horne scored a try in only the third minute after picking up a wayward Australian pass close to the Australian line. Risman missed the conversion, the first of several misses in his kicking game during the match. Australian captain Joe Jorgenson kicked a penalty soon after to make the score 3–2 to England. The talking point of the match came after half an hour of the first half when England Jack Kitching was sent off for punching Jorgenson. Despite the dismissal England took a 6–2 lead when Frank Whitcombe scored a try just before half-time.

In the second half, with England disorganised after Kitching's dismissal, Australia fought back and brought the score to 6–5 with a try by centre Ron Bailey. England extended struck back as Risman kicked a penalty but with ten minutes left Australia equalised as er Lionel Cooper scored a try. In the closing minutes both Risman and Jorgenson missed penalty chances which could have won the game for their countries. Most observers agreed that England would probably have won if the sending-off of Kitching hadn't happened.

After the game Kitching said he had pushed Jorgenson away and claimed he had been bitten. Jorgenson denied he had bitten Kitching and the judicial committee of the New South Wales Rugby League agreed dismissing Kitching's claim without hearing from Jorgenson and cautioning Kitching for punching. With this Kitching and the English management wanted to forget the whole incident but Jorgenson wanted a hearing to clear his name, but the committee declined the request and reiterated that they had no evidence Jorgenson had bitten Kitching, Jorgenson was not guilty of any improper conduct and "his good name and the team record had not been impaired" and that there was no need for Jorgenson to appear before the committee.

Second test