Editing British & Irish Lions (section)

===1980–1989===
The Lions toured [[1980 British Lions tour to South Africa|South Africa in 1980]], and completed a flawless non-test record, winning 14 out of 14 matches. The Lions lost the first three tests to South Africa, only winning the last one once the Springboks were guaranteed to win the series.

The [[1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand|1983 tour to New Zealand]] saw the team successful in the non-test games, winning all but two games, but being whitewashed in the test series against New Zealand.

A tour to South Africa by the Lions was anticipated in 1986, but the invitation for the Lions to tour was never accepted because of controversy surrounding [[Apartheid]] and the tour did not go ahead.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/story/155605.html |title=The Lions tour that never was, Cecil Afrika's Sevens' career and Shane Williams' try-scoring rate |date=5 December 2011 |last=Griffiths |first=John |work=ESPNscrum |access-date=10 September 2012 |archive-date=1 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101205142/http://www.espnscrum.com/scrum/rugby/story/155605.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The Lions did not return to South Africa until 1997, after the Apartheid era. A Lions team was selected in April 1986 for the [[International Rugby Board]] centenary match against '[[The Rest (rugby union)|The Rest]]'. The team was organised by the Four Home Unions Committee and the players were given the status of official British Lions.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of the British and Irish Lions |year=2005 |publisher=Mainstream Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=1-84596-030-0 |page=202 |first=Clem |last=Thomas |author-link=Clem Thomas}}</ref>

The Lions tour to [[1989 British Lions tour to Australia|Australia in 1989]] was a shorter affair, being only 12 matches in total. The tour was very successful for the Lions, who won all eight non-test matches and won the test series against Australia, two to one.