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In this - the 10th in a series of articles on the B&I Lions - Rugby Rugby's oracle, Paul Dobson, tells us about the quality of pitches the Lions first experienced.

When the early touring sides came from the UK and Ireland, the sailed out  unprepared for some of the fields that matches were to be played on. Field is probably a misnomer for men used to the green, green grass of home.

Paul Clauss, the Scottish wing, wrote of the first shock the 1891 side faced when they got to Kimberley where they played two matches, "both of which were stubbornly contested".

"In the first, against Kimberley clubs, we stepped into the arena with no little anxiety, as, for the first time in our lives,. were going to play on a ground absolutely destitute of grass, hard and covered with reddish dust; so that, with a bright sun overhead, there was a considerable glare. Frequently, too, one lost sight of the ball in the pillars of dust that rose up in the wake of the players as they ran."

"The hard and gritty ground somewhat dampened our ardour; it was no joke tackling or being tackled. The writer can testify to that, as a fall in the second game injured his elbow to such an extent that he had to stand down for seven matches. Many of the team, too, suffered from lesser bruises and scratches."

Playing in the old Transvaal was not more gentle. "The ground, as at Kimberley, had no grass, and - I quote from a local paper - 'During the scrums a lot of dust was kicked up, and once or twice so obscured the players, that it was difficult to see what was going on.' Nevertheless we won easily."

At the end of his account Clauss writes: "Apart from football, our most vivid impression can be summed up in five words, hard grounds and boundless hospitality."

In 1896 Walter Carey wrote on the tour. He was at Oxford at the time and was the Bishop of Bloemfontein from 1921 to 1934. Doubtless warned by their captain Johnny Hammond, they still found grassless fields tough. "We could not make head or tail of Kimberley. There was not a blade of grass on the ground, so we learnt to fall on our opponents and found it much the better plan to avoid abrasions of elbow and knee. Mackie suffered much from bleeding elbows and knees, until we learnt how to do things."

Alfred Tedford wrote about the 1903 tour and their match in Kimberley: "As for the football, we all got the surprise of our lives, as there was not a blade of grass on the ground, and when the match was only a few minutes old, the dust was 'the limit'. However, we had two very good and interesting matches, and one forgot the ground."

Alexander Foster of Ireland wrote of 1910: "Many South African grounds were so hard that our list of casualties and minor injuries was always heavy. Elbows and knees were skinned in spite of elbow guards and reinforced kneecaps; you were lucky if the wounds did not fester, and even if the scabs were healthy, you would burst them the next time you bent the limb if they had not already been knocked off by people passing you in the train. Eric Milroy .... contracted a dangerous blood-poisoning from gravel-rash. Though he was carefully nursed by Billy Tyrrell, then a medical student, he only recovered completely on his way home. I would strongly urge all touring teams to travel accompanied by a medical man.... South African players have learnt the art of taking their falls lightly and did not appear to suffer as we did."

That tour of 1910 was the last one in which fields without grass are mentioned, for in the early 1920s South Africa's playing fields changed with the introduction of kikuyu grass from East Africa. The grass did a great deal to develop the game in South Africa as the schools changed from soccer to rugby.