When it was announced that The British & Irish Lions Women would take on New Zealand in the first-ever Women’s Lions Tour in 2027, Gill Burns cleared her diary to make sure she could be there.
After all, the England great has done more than most to lay the groundwork for a Women’s Lions Tour – so much so, that she has a Lions shirt of her own in pride of place at home.
Burns was a fixture in the England team for 14 years between 1988 and 2002, captaining the side for five of those and scoring a try as they claimed a first World Cup title in 1994.
A dynamic back-rower, Burns’ place in English rugby history was cemented long before she retired from international rugby.
But a matter of months after stepping away from the Test game, Burns was playing her part in the formation of an unofficial Women’s Lions side.
While the story begins on English shores, it was in Bermuda that this concept became a reality.
Burns explains: “We knew a lot of players who played for the countries we played against in the Five Nations. We were good friends and we would dream about ‘imagine if we had a Lions Tour’. Many an hour was whiled away, chatting and socialising, imagining who would be in that team.
“It was always a dream in the 90s that maybe one day there would be a Women’s Lions but at that point, it was only a dream. In the year 2000, it wasn’t a Lions team, but we took a team to Bermuda.
“An England team went, as in we wore England shirts, but one Welsh and one Scottish player also came with us. It was mildly amusing because the two players decided they couldn’t wear the England shirt without putting a piece of tinfoil between the shirt and their heart. It was Karen Findlay of Scotland and Liza Burgess of Wales, who both wore an England shirt with a piece of tinfoil underneath.”
If that first England and friends side was a taster, two years later, Burns returned to Bermuda as part of a side that was much closer to what we imagine as a Lions team.
Aware that her own playing days were coming to an end, she had made peace with the fact that she was not going to be part of the first full Women’s Lions team.
Instead, she was a driver for the creation of a classic Lions team for veteran players.
She said: “I retired from England in 2002 so was well and truly a veteran at that point. We were talking and saying ‘it won’t happen for us because we’re all too old but let’s get our own British & Irish Lions classic Lionesses together’. A team of four were the committee who first set it up – it was one person from each nation. Karen Findlay from Scotland, Dawn Mason of Wales, Susie Appleby of England and Therese Kennedy of Ireland.
“The committee got together and chose a great mix of players. We had a squad that went in November 2002. The first Classic British & Irish Lionesses played at the new ground in Bermuda that autumn. A lot of girls were still playing international rugby. Sue Day scored our three tries that day when we beat the Golden Eagles, the USA Women’s veterans team.
“We won 20-10. I’d forgotten but reminded myself by looking at the newspaper article I have in my album. In those days, those of us who were players were also the unofficial administrators who made things happen. It was our first little step on the journey to being a British & Irish Lions team.”
The team returned to Bermuda another four times, usually to take on the Golden Eagles once again, although there was also a clash with a classic Canada side.
The set-up was fairly rough and ready, with the squad lodging in army barracks on creaky bunk beds, but that just added to the sense of adventure and camaraderie.
And Burns still has plenty of souvenirs from those trips.
Talking of her Lions jersey, she explains: “It’s like a pretend Lions badge, it’s not quite the official one but it’s an attempted copy. It says the British & Irish Classic Lionesses Bermuda 2002. I’ve got my shirt framed and it’s on my stairs. I see it every morning when I come down the stairs.
“I’ve got a second one from that same trip that I’ve made into a cushion because that is one of my businesses now, making old rugby kit into souvenir cushions. I regularly reminisce about that first trip because the kit is around the house.”
Two decades on from those Classic Lionesses, the first official Women’s Lions will make their bow in New Zealand against the Black Ferns.
It has been a long journey, and one that Burns is delighted to have been involved with along the way.
“It is a huge honour to have been involved in the growth of the game in some small way,” she added.
“We always knew we would get there, it was just a case of it being a long, steady journey. I was always really sensitive to the fact that if you push too hard, you turn people off.
“There was no point in battering doors down because people would have been more resistant to the fact that women play the game well. It’s been a case of knocking on the door politely and waiting until we have been invited in and showcasing and growing steadily. When I say we weren’t banging on doors, we were, but in a quiet way. Every time I used to go to a rugby function, I was aware I was on duty. I always felt there was a desire to do what was best for the women’s game and help it grow in the right way.
“We were planting seeds so that it was the powers that be who thought they had come up with the idea. We’d been hinting for a while and suggesting and things happen eventually when you do it in a polite and measured way. It’s a huge honour to be involved and the standard that has been reached today is incredible. But it wasn’t that bad then either.”
The professionalisation of the game was only possible because of the likes of Burns, Findlay, Burgess and many more.
Inevitably, there are some pangs of disappointment that the Women’s Lions did not come into existence when they were playing.
But for Burns, the fact that the game has reached this point is cause for celebration, not regret.
She added: “I’m absolutely delighted (about the creation of the Women’s Lions). You’d say it is too long coming but it is so important that when it’s done, it’s done well. I love the idea of it, I know it is being done professionally. That means there will be even more eyes on it and people waking up to the fact that rugby is for all and I’m so excited about it.
“I think for any of us who were involved with that first committee, worked tirelessly doing all the admin for everyone else, everyone who went, it will be almost as emotional for us, I would suspect. I think a fair few of that group will be out there.
“There will be a heck of a lot of international players from all the nations who will think ‘if only this could have happened when I was playing’. It’s a slightly selfish view but I’m hoping they can put that away and realise they have paved some of the way to where it will be in 2027.
“New Zealand is just the best destination for the first Lions Tour. I can’t wait.”
More than most, Burns paved the way for the class of 2027. No wonder she intends to be there when they make history.
