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In this - the ninth in a series of articles on the B&I Lions - Rugby Rugby's oracle, Paul Dobson, tells us how the 1910 tour, the first truly British and Irish representative outfit, was almost stopped.

In 1910 the British Touring Team came to South Africa, the first team to be called British instead of English and the first team to be chosen from all four countries. It was a tour that was close to stopped midway through.

They brought more players than their predecessors and were to play more matches. They had 27 players and were down to play 26 matches in 88 days, roughly two matches a week. What with arguing and wrangling 25 matches were played, one of which was regarded as unofficial.

The fight was not with the players but with the manager.

Their manager was a successful business man, William Cail who was the treasurer - honorary, of course - of England's RFU from 1894 to 1925 when he died. Before that he had been twice elected president of the RFU and then elected junior vice-president and then senior vice-president. He served on the International Rugby Board from 1890 to 1925.

He is described variously as "careless of popularity" and "dour, silent and impregnable".

He was the president when the Rugby League split took place, a bitter time, as 22 clubs in workingman's Yorkshire and Lancashire broke away, for this was the heyday of rugby amateurism when playing Rugby League led to excommunication. But then he was the treasurer who found the money to support Billy Williams's plan to buy the market garden that today is Twickenham.

The arguments between Cail and the South African Rugby Board were to do with the itinerary. It started with the RFU's (really Cail's) stipulation that no strong matches be organised for the first fortnight of the tour. This caused the chairman of the board, Billy Simkins, a Londoner by birth, to exclaim: "Then God help our poor Mother Country."

But the South African Rugby Board eventually acquiesced. As a result the tour started in Mossel Bay and then moved to Cape Town to play Western Province Country, Western Province Colleges, Western Province Town clubs and then only Western Province. The concern for the Board was that a weak start of this kind would be bad for revenue and the tour needed financial support. But that is what happened.

The original itinerary required the 29 touring players to play 26 matches in 88 days, including three Tests. Before the tour the RFU insisted that no other matches be played in the week of a Test. The provisional itinerary had the tourists playing Port Elizabeth on 23 August and South Africa on 27 August in Port Elizabeth, then a mad week of Pietermaritzburg on the Saturday, Johannesburg on the Tuesday and again on the Thursday and then the second Test on the Saturday. Then they were to play Western Province on the Wednesday before the third Test.

Eventually the SA Board agreed a 26-match tour with a match on Wednesday before each of the three Tests. The Board sent cables to the RFU in this regard and, receiving no reply, took "silence to give consent".

Originally there were to have been 28 players but then Cail wrote that a "sub-manager" be appointed to accompany the tour, that as a result 27 players come out and that the sub-manager be Walter Rees, secretary of the Welsh Rugby Football Union.

When the tour was on the go Cail applied to the Board for permission to bring out another forward. The only one available was Reg Hands, a South African Rhodes Scholar who had played for England.  The Board informed Cail that they could not agree to Hands's playing for the "British Team". They did in fact gain two more players - Jim Webb of Wales and the remarkable Australian Rusty Richards.

The first Test was due to be played on 6 August. On 13 July the SARB called an Emergency General Meeting. There was one item on the agenda:

The chairman stated that the meeting had been convened in order to consider what action should be taken with reference to a letter received from Mr Cail, the Manager of the British team.

In fact the problem started earlier. Cail pointed out to the Board on arrival ("within an hour of landing") that not more than two matches were to be played in a week and no other match in the week of a Test. But "no further action was taken at the time".

The itinerary contained three matches in a week in the Transvaal - against Pretoria on the Tuesday (5 July), Transvaal country on the Thursday (7 July) and Transvaal on the Saturday (9 July).

The telegram dated 7 July from Mr Shaw, the South African manager of the touring team: "Cail refuses to play match today on grounds too many matches in one week. Transvaal arrangements made."

Telegram from Shaw dated 7 July: "Urgent. Players, Rees willing to play. Kindly bring pressure make Cail, agree. I have done all possible. Transvaal arrangements all made. Match must come off."

Telegram from Executive to Cail dated 7 July: "Board expects British team to fulfil arrangements."

They did. Those matches were played, but when the Tests drew nearer Cail dug his heals in.

The first Test was on 6 August in Kimberley. On 14 July Cail wrote to the Board from the Waverley Hotel in Durban and then again on 19 July in which he stated: "I am unable to recede from the position I have taken up that we refuse to play any match in the weeks preceding  the first and third Tests and reserve to ourselves the right of not playing any in the week preceding the second Test and if for the convenience of your public you wish a definite answer about the Second Test at once, you had better take it that we also refuse to play then."

This led to all sorts of correspondence flying around South Africa and England. Eventually the match in Johannesburg scheduled for 1 August against Witwatersrand was abandoned.

At this stage Mr Shaw resigned for health reasons and Mr T Holmes replaced him as SA Manager to the touring team.

Holmes cabled the Board: "Cail will not depart from position taken up as conveyed in my former wire stop Insists on playing Test in Cape Town with week's rest stop Has now definitely decided not to play match 24th at Port Elizabeth."

At this stage the tour seemed about to be abandoned.

The SA Rugby Board met on 12 August to discuss the crisis, the day before the tourists were to play Border in East London.

President Billy Simkins spoke about the 1903 touring team which had not grumbled and "went away coupled with our good wishes, friendship and having taught us a lot

"I must say I feel hurt in the matter of the great delay that is required to play a Test match. I only regret that when the Springboks went home they did not see it necessary to have a week's rest before playing a Test match. I suppose the climatic conditions in the old country would affect our men just as much as the climatic conditions in this country would affect the English players."

He mentioned how the Springboks in 1906 played Tests in the week before they played Scotland, Ireland and Wales and that week included two trips across the Irish Sea. Even in 2009, the Lions have played matches in the week's preceding Tests.

Simkins also said: "I look upon Mr. Cail as a gentleman and am glad to see him in this country representing the International Rugby Board, but I do think he is going too far. I think that the South African Board should say that unless these gentlemen are prepared to play their fixtures as we drew them up we should take the matter into serious consideration and stop all matches. That is my opinion. If they are not prepared to meet us in a sportsmanlike manner the remaining matches should be stopped."

The Board members supported Simkins.

"Mr. Davis then moved, seconded by Mr. Myburgh: That Mr. Cail be informed by telegram immediately of the views, expressed by the President, of the meeting and that he be given the option of carrying out the fixtures or else going Home."

The telegram read: "Board have unanimously decided that original or amended fixture list must be adhered to failing which Board are prepared to cancel all further fixtures. Amended programme means Eastern Province 20th, Midlands 23rd or 24th, South Africa 27th and 3rd September, Western Province 6th September. The necessity for an early reply is apparent."

Cail then decided that his side would not play Border, but the players insisted on playing. Cail let them play, but in club colours, insisted that the match be regarded as unofficial and therefore not a part of the tour and that the gate money be given to charity. The motley tourists won 30-10 and the match is included in records of the tour.

But the tour did go ahead. The match before the Port Elizabeth Test was jettisoned and the Western Province match was moved till after the third Test at Newlands.

Holmes had warned the Board: "Cail agreeable to play Cape Town Test 3rd and Province 6th. I am positive the players will not take 6th seriously." The tourists lost 8-0.

They played 24 matches, winning 13, drawing three and losing eight. They lost the first Test 14-10, won the second 8-3 and lost the third 21-5.