The British & Irish Lions will play in Hong Kong for the first time in history in 2013 with a match against the Barbarians scheduled as a curtain raiser for their 2013 tour to Australia.
The Lions, who also today confirmed that banking giant HSBC shall remain as tour sponsors, will be headed by Andy Irvine who takes over as Tour Manager from Gerald Davies who led the entertaining 2009 South African tour.
Irvine, a former international with Scotland, played 41 times for the Lions.
Rugby Union fans await the full schedule for the 2013 Australian British & Irish Lions Tour.
In This Story: Australia
Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. It is the largest country in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country by total area.
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”.
Scotland is a country in Western Europe which forms part of the United Kingdom. Its government was joined with that of England’s through the 1707 Acts of Union. A devolved government now administers many of the affairs of the country, though ultimate authority still resides with Westminster. Scotland has a distinct legal system and national sporting associations. 5.2 million people live in Scotland and the largest city in the country is Glasgow, though the capital is Edinburgh where the government sits at the Scottish Parliament opposite Holyrood Palace.
