The England prop, on his first Lions Tour, was about to undergo an experience that many would pay good money to avoid: having to lead a room full of people in song. But whilst Sinckler nervously prepared himself for a rendition of
Jerusalem
, the man standing alongside him, choirmaster Haydn James, knew that his rehearsal was proving a hit. “With the reaction Kyle got from the whole squad, I thought ‘we’re in here’,” James recalls. “The players were a bit out of their comfort zone. They’d come in from training, or a meeting, to a choir practice and they were a little reluctant. But for me, Kyle coming up to sing the English hymn
Jerusalem
was the moment when they all came together without any embarrassment. It was the ice-breaker.”
The full Lions touring party – players, management, coaches, medical staff, analysts, and support staff – were rehearsing four songs, one from each nation, to be sung anytime, anywhere, at formal functions whilst decked in a blazer and tie, or in the changing rooms wearing the sweat, mud and blood of a match. The songs selected were
Highland Cathedral
(representing Scotland),
The Fields of Athenry
(representing Ireland),
Jerusalem
(representing England), and
Calon Lân
(representing Wales). The idea was the brainchild of head coach Warren Gatland, who felt the Lions needed to be culturally prepared for touring New Zealand. Such was the success of James’s choir practices, the Lions were ready to debut two of the four songs in their repertoire,
The Fields of Athenry
and
Highland Cathedral
, at their farewell dinner in London, just a week after their first choir practice.
From there on the singing never really stopped.
Calon Lân
was chosen to be the first song performed on tour in response to the haka and Maori folk songs which welcomed the Lions upon landing at Auckland airport (an impromptu Lions rehearsal having been held whilst coming in to land). As Wales’s nominated musical leader for the Tour, hooker Ken Owens was right at the front of the Lions choir for that performance. He said: “I was probably the worst singer on the Tour but I am enthusiastic and I think they knew I wouldn’t shy away and that I’d be loud enough! “The Welsh boys chose
Calon Lân
as it’s probably easier to learn than some of the other Welsh songs, and it’s got great rugby connections with it being one of the main songs sung on Wales matchdays.
“When you go to New Zealand they have their culture, and this allowed us to show a bit of our culture back, in an organised way so you look more respectful, rather than it just being ad hoc. “But singing is also about enjoyment and we had a lot of fun learning the songs of the other nations and also learning what those songs meant to the other boys. “It brought us together and gave us confidence. Even once the Tour was over and we were back in the hotel, having some beers, we were singing these songs.” Throughout Lions history, the spirit of togetherness which a Lions Tour promotes has become even more revered than the results on the pitch. And so often music and singing has played a pivotal role in establishing that spirit.
On the 2013 Tour to Australia, it was folk-rock number
Little Lion Man
by Mumford & Sons which received the most airtime over the six-week Tour as the Lions won their first Test series in 16 years. In 1997, famously, it was Britpop anthem
Wonderwall
by Oasis which fired the Lions to a 2-1 series win – their first in South Africa since 1974. The song became an instant hit with the tourists after it was played in a Cape Town bar whilst the Lions celebrated a 38-21 victory over Western Province at the end of their first week. For England centre Jeremy Guscott the song’s popularity was down to “it being one of celebration, and we had quite a lot to celebrate on that Tour!”.
Not least for Guscott himself, as the prince of centres would hit the winning drop goal in the crucial second Test in a brutal 18-15 victory in Durban. Guscott had been on two Tours prior to 1997 – to New Zealand in 1993 and to Australia in 1989 – but he doesn’t recall music providing the same role in bringing the team together as it would do in 1997. Ireland lock Donal Lenihan was captain of the midweek team in 1989 and agrees with Guscott’s assessment. "We did have singsongs in ’89, we had a song book so we sung on the bus trips of course,” he said. “But it wasn’t as much as in 1983. “On that Tour [to New Zealand – where the Lions lost the Test series 4-0], it was almost sacrosanct to have your time in the team room after a match to have a few beers and where everyone could sing a few songs. “There were big personalities on that Tour. I remember the first time I was involved in the post-match singsong, Pricey [Wales front-rower Graham Price] did a couple of Buddy Holly numbers, his speciality. “Now this was about the last fella you would expect – a big, grisly, hairy man, heart of the Pontypool front row, singing Buddy Holly! It just didn’t seem to fit but he commanded respect as he had a beautiful voice and was word perfect.
“Then there was Iain Milne, the massive Scottish tighthead, whose party piece was
The Rattlin’ Bog.
Now
The Rattlin’ Bog
has about 48 verses in it, ‘the bog in the tree, the tree in the hole, then the hole in bog’ and so on, and he had every word. But you were there asking yourself ‘would he ever get to the end of this bloody song!’. “But it’s amazing now because, 30 or 40 years later, these things stick in your head and they transport you back in time.” Lenihan – who was the Tour Manager on the 2001 Tour to Australia – also has fond memories of a Lions singalong after playing against the World XV at the Cardiff Arms Park in 1986 – a match organised following the cancellation of the Tour set for South Africa that summer, because of concerns over apartheid. “I have no doubt that the one hour we spent with each other after that match in the privacy of our own hotel room with everybody singing, played a unique role in keeping that group together,” said Lenihan. “We had a reunion six years ago and 16 of the 23 turned up, and we’re constantly in contact with each other, which is amazing for a group who were only together for one week of training, one match, and one hour afterwards.” Jumping further back to the 1970s and the age of the three-month Lions Tour saw matches played every three or four days with lengthy travel in between.
To onlookers in New Zealand in 1971 and 1977 and South Africa in 1974, it must have seemed that the best rugby players from Britain and Ireland also happened to also be a travelling male voice choir. “We sung at all times, in any language!” recalled Wales scrum-half Gareth Edwards, part of the legendary 1971 and 1974 Lions Tours, having cut his teeth on the 1968 Tour to South Africa “Music was, without question, without trying, very much part of the overall experience. On a long coach journey on a dusty track, you would inevitably end up singing. “It not only passed the time but it tied us together as we were away for a long time, without any chance of meeting up with your family, like you get now. So you’d think of your family and you would think of your friends whilst you sung. “It was emotional at times and emotion played a huge part of our preparation in those days.”
Much like Warren Gatland in 2017, Carwyn James, the head coach for the 1971 Tour to New Zealand, encouraged a formal element to the singing and asked players from each nation to put forward three or four songs for the tourists to learn and to sing at official functions. “Carwyn insisted that we were going to learn the songs properly and from that originated our ‘Sunday School’ practice, led by our choirmaster John Taylor,” added Edwards. “It wasn’t compulsory but most of us went along. In a small town, way out of Auckland or Wellington, there was nothing more than a couple of pubs and a hotel, and on Sunday everything would shut down. So we would have choir practice. “Sundays were travel days after playing on the Saturday. On Mondays we would often be invited to a reception at the Lord Mayor’s Parlour where we were and inevitably they would ask ‘whether the Lions would give us a song’. So we had to be quite organised.” As choirmaster, Taylor was responsible for introducing the Beach Boys’
Sloop John B
to the Lions repertoire. The song wasn’t a hit from the off but affinity with it grew so much that it was sung on the pitch after the Test series was secured and again later in the year at the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year when the Lions won the Team of the Year award. “Sloop John B was great and we just loved it,” explained Edwards. “Whenever we have a reunion, which we do from time to time, John Taylor gets up and starts going ‘bam bam bam, bam bam bam’ and everyone falls into place as if time has stood still – it’s great. “And many players had their own specialist song. I remember Willie John [McBride] did a wonderful
Danny Boy
and John Spencer can still give you
Sosban Fach
word perfect even now, although in his Yorkshire accent!”
