1947–48 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America
series of rugby union matches
Between July 1947 and March 1948, the Australia national rugby union team – the Wallabies – conducted a world tour encompassing Ceylon, Britain, Ireland, France and the United States on which they played five Tests and 36 minor tour matches. It was the first of such tour in twenty years, since that of the 1927–28 Waratahs, as the 1939–40 Australia rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland tour had been thwarted by World War II. They were known as the Third Wallabies.
The 1947–48 side was notable in preserving their try-line uncrossed by any of the Home Nations in the first four Tests played. The nine month journey was one of the last of that era of epic tours when transport was mostly by ship and when the tourists were welcomed by rugby fans and townships, civic officials and royalty.
The Australians in those days were still showcasing the new running style of rugby that had not yet been fully embraced in the northern hemisphere. The legacy of Johnnie Wallace's leadership of 1927–28, of Cyril Towers and the credo of galloping rugby as played at his Randwick club in Sydney had some bearing on this but Batchelor also suggests that the everyday competition for public attention between the two rugby codes caused the Australian game (both in Sydney and Brisbane) to need to match the speed and open play of the 13-a-side code. This need was not the same in London and Cardiff where rugby league as yet posed no threat to spectator numbers coming through rugby union turnstiles.
The squad's leadership
A squad of 30 players were selected under tour captain Bill McLean. McLean was an experienced Wallaby and leader. His father and brother had represented as both Wallabies and Kangaroos, with his other brother Jack also a Wallaby tourist.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3996360. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1947, 1948, 1927 and 1939.
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