When the British & Irish Lions face the AUNZ invitational XV side, it will be exactly 137 years since they ran out to Adelaide playing a completely different sport.
The first Lions tour in 1888 was unique in many ways, but one fact that stands out is how the squad competed in more than just Rugby matches.
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In addition to playing 35 games of rugby union, the Lions team also played 19 games of Victorian Rules Football (later known as Australian Rules Football)
This included a trip to South Australia to face a host of local sides, including Port Adelaide on July 10, 1888.
Whilst the concept of handballs and ball-ups may be as uncommon to the Lions as stobie poles and smiley fritzs are to the rest of Australia, they rose to the occasion.
The Lions had come off the back of seven straight defeats to the likes of Fitzroy, South Melbourne and South Adelaide.
But they took it to Port Adelaide in front of a crowd of 2,000 as local reports from the day described the shock at the turnaround.
“On Saturday the visitors seemed all at sea, they could not mark nor run well, while their kicking was not above mediocre, and they showed very little knowledge of the rules. On Tuesday, however, a complete change came over them, and at times no better football has been witnessed on the oval for a long while,” the South Australian Advertiser on the day reported.
“Though they showed but slight improvement in the little marking department of the game, they kicked with greater judgment, kept to their men, and showed all round that they had profited by experience.”
Former Wales skipper William Thomas delivered the opener as the Lions were in front on the scoreboard that read: two goals four behinds to Port’s two behinds.
Port Adelaide rallied and eventually had a one behind advantage heading into the break.
When they extended this advantage beyond three goals, similar fates to past Lions games seemed to be on the horizon.
This is where the British outfit rallied to the delight of the locals.
“The last quarter was entirely in favour of the Englishmen, and the manner in which they played caused rounds of applause to issue from the spectators, who throughout the afternoon treated the Englishmen very courteously, every piece of good play calling forth approbation,” the report said.
English forward Charlie Mathers kicked his second of the match as the visitors had all the momentum.
His fellow countryman Andrew Stoddart was the standout in the comeback, holding the unique distraction of captaining international in cricket, rugby union and Australian Rules.
Stoddart was an excellent cricketer, named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1893, and had taken over the captaincy of the squad following Robert Seddon’s drowning.
The all-round athlete set up a goal and kicked the winner as the final scoreboard had the combined side up by a goal.
The Lions side would return to the Oval, fittingly on the same day this iteration of the side will face the AUNZ team to take on Adelaide, going down by over four goals.
They would lose to Norwood before heading to Victoria for six further matches, winning four matches.
In total, the Lions played 18 games of the Australian-based code, winning six and losing 12.
