<Table> <Tr> <Td> 1888, 1891 </Td> <Td> 1899, 1904 </Td> <Td> 1908 </Td> <Td> 1910--1938 </Td> <Td> 1950--present </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> 1888, 1891 </Td> <Td> 1899, 1904 </Td> <Td> 1908 </Td> <Td> 1910--1938 </Td> <Td> 1950--present </Td> </Tr> <P> The earliest tours date back to 1888, when a 21 - man squad visited Australia and New Zealand . The squad drew players from England, Scotland and Wales, though English players predominated . The 35 - match tour of two host nations included no tests, but the side played provincial, city and academic sides, winning 27 matches . They played 19 games of Australian rules football, against prominent clubs in Victoria and South Australia, winning six and drawing one of these (see Australian rules football in England). </P> <P> The first tour, although unsanctioned by rugby bodies, established the concept of Northern Hemisphere sporting sides touring to the Southern Hemisphere . Three years after the first tour, the Western Province union invited rugby bodies in Britain to tour South Africa . Some saw the 1891 team--the first sanctioned by the Rugby Football Union--as the English national team, though others referred to it as "the British Isles". The tourists played a total of twenty matches, three of them tests . The team also played the regional side of South Africa (South Africa did not exist as a political unit in 1891), winning all three matches . In a notable event of the tour, the touring side presented the Currie Cup to Griqualand West, the province they thought produced the best performance on the tour . </P>

When was the first lions tour in nz